Did Benavidez Get Away With Illegal Tactics Against Morrell?

By Dan Ambrose – 02/04/2025 – Comments

Former trainer Teddy Atlas says he noticed some tactics that David Benavidez got away with using against David Morrell that may not have been allowed with other referees working their fight last Saturday night.

Atlas noticed these two questionable Benavidez’s tactics:

Punching behind the ear
Pulling Morrell’s guard down with his left hand and hitting.

Fighters can knock the guard down and punch, but they are not supposed to pull it down and punch. Benavidez was doing the latter. He was holding one of Morrell’s arms down while tagging him with the others. The referee should have observed that tactic and warned or penalized Benavidez.

Punches Behind the Head

Hitting behind the head is considered illegal and is supposed to be warned and penalized by their referee. Atlas calls it ‘hitting behind the ear,’ but it looked more like punching to the back of the head, which Benavidez used against Morrell.

Rabbit punching is supposed to result in warnings, but referees often overlook it or fail to notice it. They focus more on stopping low blows, which is interesting, given that getting hit behind the head is far more dangerous.

There were instances in the Benavidez-Morrell fight that looked like textbook rabbit punches from Benavidez, but nothing was said. That was weird.

“He [Benavidez] used his left hand to pull down the guard of Morrell and then hit him with the right hand as he did it. I don’t know if that’s even allowed? It’s up to the referee to say he can’t do it,” said former trainer Teddy Atlas on his YouTube channel, discussing the illegal move that David Benavidez used throughout his fight with David Morrell to land shots when the Cuban fighter had his guard up.

“I’m not sure every referee would allow you to reach over and pull the guys’ glove down. He He did it a few times effectively, and then hit him with a right hand after you pull his glove down. The referee did not stop Benavidez, and more power to him.

“Benavidez aimed behind his ear. He threw the looping right hand behind his ear,” said Atlas about the punches to the back of Morrell’s head Benavidez was landing and getting away with without being warmed or penalized. “There’s more than one way to hit a guy with a right hand.