Antonio Tarver wants David Benavidez to stop chasing Canelo Alvarez and trying to get a fight against him because he clearly doesn’t want to face him.
Instead, Tarver says Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) needs to face WBA ‘regular super middleweight champion David Morrell Jr (9-0, 8 KOs) because that is a fight that can further his career.
Morrell is a 25-year-old Cuban Olympian who has been pushed fast by his promoters due to his amateur background in Cuba. Many boxing fans believe that Morrell is the best fighter in the 168-lb division, better than Benavidez and Canelo.
If Benavidez is going to take the fight with Morrell, he needs to be certain of what he’s getting himself into because he could lose.
“That would be a firecracker fight. The kid from the Olympics is no joke. He’s coming up fast with a lot of energy that way. It would be a heck of a fight,” said Antonio Tarver to Fight Hub TV about WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion David Morrell Jr and David Benavidez.
“Stop chasing Canelo, bro. The man don’t look like he wants to fight you,” said Tarver about Benavidez. “That fight right there can get David up there real quick, and then we can probably see some Charlo action and Boo Boo Andrade, who I really want to see get in there. It’s been way too long for him, and he’s an Olympian.
“When I came into the game in 1996, all that business about being an Olympian, wearing the red, white & blue. That s**t went out the window.
“They started handling us like we were just another joker off the street with the way they were playing with you and all that crap that never benefitted for me going to the Olympics. That was my dream.
“I stayed an extra four years. I could have turned pro in 1992. I stayed an extra four years, chasing my dream to get that gold medal, and they jerked me. Not only jerked me. I was the best fighter in the game prior to the Olympics, and two weeks later, I couldn’t get a manager or a promoter.
“I started my career by myself with my trainer. I didn’t have no help. This is the part that they don’t know about. We had small-time promoters. We still won, though. It was a mess. I didn’t have no one working with me or for me.
“All I had was me and my dream, and I made it because I refused to lose. I ain’t never going to quit. So I don’t know what to do but keep going. That’s all I know how to do. Keep going,” said Tarver.
