In the aftermath of Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia, some events that have occurred prior to the fight have gone unnoticed. In particular, the circumstances surrounding the replacement of David Morrell’s original opponent, Sena Agbeko, now bring to light new and intriguing issues far removed from the glitz and glamour that the previous weekend brought. Now, corruption and even doping have risen to the forefront following Ageko’s efforts to highlight the injustice that he claims has happened to him.

Sena Agbeko’s (27-2, 21 KO’s) unique case seems to only accentuate the wall of smoke that surrounds Cuban WBA ‘Regular’ Super Middleweight champion, David Morrell (9-0, 8 KO’s). Morrell, 25, is known to hardcore followers of boxing as a sort of ‘dark horse’ in the division. Though skilled and powerful, questions still remain as to how he stacks up against the top of his division, but so far he has impressed; especially with his KO streak that has seen the Cuban finish every opponent he’s faced except for one.

Despite Morrell’s rather impressive KO ratio of roughly 88% ― against good solid opponents who increasingly got better, it is exactly this streak of knockouts/stoppages that has now become heavily scrutinized after it was revealed that Morrell hadn’t signed up for VADA testing prior to facing Yamaguchi Falcao (24-2-1, 10 KO’s) ― who served as a replacement for Sena Agbeko; who was forced to pull out of his fight with David Morrell due to extraordinary circumstances. Their match eventually resulted in a first-round knockout for Morrell on April 22nd.

David Morrell is currently signed to Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), who we recently pointed as a suspected harbinger of the corruption that currently pervades the sport. Though the relationship between David Morrell and the PBC might not include any foul play, Sena Agbeko’s odd removal from his fight with the Cuban, and the subsequent news of both Morrell and Falcao not signing up for VADA flares up a couple of warning signals; especially given Morrell’s KO streak.

David Morrell’s knockout/stoppage run might not indicate anything wrong either, yet it is known that streaks such as can be synonymous with the use of performance-enhancing drugs. To reference a more recent situation where PEDs may have enhanced someone’s KO rate, Conor Benn (21-0, 14 KO’s) is the most recent boxer to have failed two PED tests; coincidentally, Benn had recorded KO’s that seemed just as devastating as Morrell’s.

The fact that Morrell hasn’t signed up for VADA would normally be cause for alarm; especially with how his last two opponents have looked quite vulnerable after their fight with opponent Aidos Yerbossynuly (16-1, 11 KO’s), in particular, ending up in a coma following his fight with Morrell.

Even without David Morrell being a suspect for the potential use of PEDs, the PBC or his team have been alleged by Sena Agbeko himself of dishonest practices with the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) refusing to grant Agbeko a license to fight ― as the fight was set to take place in Las Vegas ― because of apparent medical vulnerabilities. In the past couple of weeks, Sena Agbeko has gathered evidence that he was medically fine, and the Ghanaian contender maintains as such on his social media platforms.

“After more extensive and detailed testing, it is now very clear that someone didn’t want @davidmorrelljr_oficial (David Morrell) to fight me and incorrectly presented my MRI report to that effect. This is my vindication. It also shows what cowards morrell and his team are! They tried to ruin me!” Sena Agbeko shared frustratingly on his Twitter account as of the 27th of April ― after a producing a written e-mail by the neurosurgeon that ran tests on him.

The NSAC’s reasoning for not granting Sena Agbeko a license was contradicts what Agbeko’s current medical report states.

Sena Agbeko has, in the meantime, pointed the fingers at David Morrell’s team, the PBC and NSAC who he alleges to have sabotaged and prevented him from fighting the WBA ‘Regular’ champion. In a revealing interview held with RTH podcast, Agbeko has given his side of the story into what led to the denial of a boxing license to fight in Nevada.

“Okay, so this is what happened; I strongly believe that they got wind of the fact that I had been in Vegas for the last six to eight weeks. I’ve been training, and they started to feel threatened about what could happen.” Agbeko stated in the interview.

“They want that card to be Morrell’s coming-out party, but here’s the thing, a lot of word has been going around Vegas that there’s this new cat on the block. Like he’s killing stuff to the point where even Benavidez himself, just before he fought Caleb, sent me a message saying that, ‘yo bro I heard you’re really, really good and I want you to come into my next camp to help me get ready for my fight’.” The Ghanaian contender continued to explain, referring to himself as the ‘new cat on the block’ in this instance, and ‘they’ in this instance as either Team Morrell, the PBC, NSAC or all.

“So if word had gotten to Benavidez about what I was doing out in Vegas, you know it would have gotten around to a lot different people, and I have everything to prove that that’s exactly what happened.

“So, I go for my medicals, my physicals, my eye test; all of that is clean. Obviously they can’t doctor that. My blood work, all the blood factors are normal, obviously they can’t mess with that. My physicals ― I am healthy as can be.

“The only thing that they could even look at trying to mess with me, was my MRI. So, my MRI goes to their doctor and there’s not anybody saying that I have a problem that would prevent the fight from going on.

“The commission’s doctor says that, ‘oh they just need a second opinion on my MRI’.”

Sena Agbeko went on to allege that the PBC (and TGB promotions) matchmaker sent an e-mail to his promoter Sean Gibbons, to send Agbeko to a new neurosurgeon following the positive medical report.

Agbeko maintains that he did exactly that, only to then have the new neurosurgeon tell him that he could find nothing either with his brain scans.

“I went to see this neurosurgeon. When the neurosurgeon walked in; the first thing he said was, ‘ I don’t see anything. I don’t see what they’re claiming that is on there; that they want me to give me clearance for. There’s literally nothing. You’re healthy’.” Sena Agbeko recalled.

“It’s funny because what what they were claiming initially was that there was a one millimeter aneurysm, and they came to that conclusion based off what they said was supposed to be a dark spot on the scan that they saw.

“And, the doctor ― this guy’s been doing this for 35 years ― he’s not going to put his
license on the line to clear me for a fight if he thought something could happen. That would put his whole livelihood at risk, so this guy this guy’s like, ‘no, you’re perfectly fine. There’s nothing wrong’.

“I released that report on all my social media platforms today because it shows that this guy said that there’s nothing wrong and and even if what they’re saying ― that there’s a one millimeter aneurysm brain aneurysm ― was true, it’s fine because there’s absolutely no risk of anything happening to me in the course of this fight.” Agbeko explained.

According to Sena Agbeko, there was apparently no indication he had any brain injury, unlike what was claimed by the NSAC when they refused to grant him a license to fight David Morrell. Given Agbeko’s statements and the prove (e-mails) he provided, the NSAC, PBC and David Morrel’s team, there seems to be a legitimate case for Agbeko to at least be compensated for the money and time spent for his training camp, if he chooses to go down the legal path.

We have reached out to NSAC for comments but have yet to receive a response.