By Eric Bottjer
The post-fight exchange was normal, the victorious boxer shaking hands with the promoter of his rival. But when David Benavidez went to sit down after offering his hand to Luis DeCubas (promoter of David Morrell), the exchange had just begun.
DeCubas became animated and began jabbing his finger at Benavidez, who looked perplexed and amused. And then angry.
The dust-up began days earlier at the fight-week press conference. Benavidez dominated it (Morrell and his trainer, Ronnie Shields, are introverts) until DeCubas stepped in. “You’re getting knocked the fuck out,” DeCubas told Benavidez. “You’re scared. I can see it in your eyes.” Benavidez has a lot of tools, including counterpunching. He accused DeCubas of making more money than Morrell for the fight.
Later, Decubas was almost bemused by that accusation. “First time in my 43 years of boxing I’ve heard that,” he said. “It’s ridiculous. Also, there’s no way Al Haymon is letting any promoter make more money than the fighter.”
DeCubas did not regard the talk as the normal pre-fight hype. He was not ready to make nice. Still, Decubas IS a pro and one of his many talents to look at boxing without emotion in previewing and reviewing fights. “I truly thought Morrell would knock him out,” DeCubas said. “So all credit to him (Benavidez). That’s baseball.” Morrell, DeCubas added, has now moved into the elite neighborhood at light-heavyweight. Talk of a possible Caleb Plant fight delighted him. “We’ll fight anybody,” he said.
So will Benavidez. His promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz (famous enough now that when you punch in “Sampson L” on Google, Lewkowicz’s name is seen on page 1) has only ONE body in mind right now: the winner of the Feb. 22 rematch between Arthur Beterbiev-Dmitriy Bivol. “That is the ONLY fight we are looking at,” Sampson said Monday night. “We expect the WBC and WBA to name us the mandatory for the winner. David proved (against Morrell) that he is the only fight for the winner.”
The long-term plan is obvious – fight (and hopefully beat) the winner of Beterbiev-Bivol, shaming Canelo Alvarez into a mega 2026 showdown. The winner of that fight takes the mantel as the “face of boxing” (a phrase thrown around far too often today, but in this scenario, quite accurate).
Benavidez told Ariel Helwani on Sunday that he might be ringside for Beterbiev-Bivol in Saudi Arabia. “That’s his decision and he hasn’t made it yet,” Lewkowicz said, adding that Benavidez was leaving on a vacation (which has become a tradition for him after a big fight) and will decide whether to cut that trip short and head to Saudi.
