By Norm Frauenheim
LAS VEGAS — Words, mostly the four-letter variety, have been exchanged. So have threats, insults and all of the rest. David Benavidez and David Morrell played their roles and memorized their lines. It was boxing theater at its best. And its worst. Promoter Tom Brown promises violence, which of course is exactly what you’d expect in a fight.
By Friday, there wasn’t much left to say. After all, there are only so many four-letter combinations. We’ve heard them all, and none of them have really changed any minds. Benavidez-Morrell was a pick-em fight when it was announced. It was virtually a pick-em fight Friday after both stepped off the scale — appropriately enough — without a fraction of a pound separating them.
Their weights were like their first names. Both Davids came in at an identical 174.2 pounds, safely under the 175-pound mandatory for a light-heavyweight fight Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena that is supposed to lead to a shot at the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitrii Bivol winner on Feb. 22 in Saudi Arabia.
The weigh-in, a staged version of the official one earlier Friday, was perhaps noteworthy for what didn’t happen. There were no blows, not even a shove.
Escalating rhetoric, mostly sparked by Benavidez, at news conferences and public appearances had set off more than a few alarms. A few punches the day before opening bell would not have surprised anybody. But it didn’t happen, mostly because of Morrell.
As the two rivals moved toward center stage for the ritual face-off, Morrell suddenly looked down and stepped back, exiting left and away from an impending storm. It’ll happen anyway, sometime around 8 p.m. (PT) in the Amazon streamed bout.
That doesn’t exactly mean that the two camps were suddenly at peace. They’re not. The evident hostility was there, behind closed doors, at the official weigh-in in a moment best described by Morrell manager Luis De Cubas.
Benavidez and De Cubas have been insulting each other all week. There have been allegations about performance-enhancing drugs, a knockdown of Morrell in training camp, money and even hand shakes. According to De Cubas, Friday morning’s chapter of discontent started with an attempted hand shake.
De Cubas said Benavidez arrived at the official weigh-in, offering to shake De Cubas’ hand. De Cubas refused. He said he wouldn’t accept anything — not an apology or anything else — from Benavidez. De Cubas called him a “——sucker” at Thursday’s news conference.
“He called me a thief,’’ De Cubas said.
By the time everybody reached the MGM Grand Garden Arena for the staged weigh-in, Benavidez was only offering promises of pain and peril for the 27-year-old Morrell, an unbeaten Cuban living in Minneapolis.
“I guarantee that I’ll knock him out,’’ the 28-year-old Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) said to a crowd of a few thousand, most of whom made the drive up to Vegas from Phoenix, Benavidez’ hometown.
The weigh-in crowd was clearly there for Benavidez, who has gone from fat kid to feared fighter in an unlikely ascent to stardom. Fans at the weigh-in identify with Benavidez and the westside Phoenix streets that produced him.
“Benavidez, Benavidez”, they chanted.
Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) heard them. His only answer was a gesture. He blew them kisses. It also might have been his way at telling them to kiss off. He and his corner enter Saturday’s fight confident that they can slow down Benavidez, often a freight train in the late rounds of any fight. The Cuban’s left hand, they say, will do to Benavidez what he guaranteed he’ll do to Morrell. A KO is Morrell’s promise.
Best bet?
Violence.
