Can Morrell’s body shots stop Benavidez?

Diego Pacheco believes reigning WBA light heavyweight champion David Morrell will be David Benavidez’s “toughest opponent” when they meet in the main event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on February 1st.

Pacheco, a super middleweight who trains with Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), is projected to wear down Morel (11-0, 9 KOs) and come out on top. He compares Morel to Caleb Plant, which is a strange comparison, and sees Benavidez starting slow but then coming around.

Threat of shooting the body

If Benavidez gets hit by Morrell as much as Plant, he will be in trouble in this fight. Morrell’s morel is much different than Plant’s, and he will target his weak midsection to shut him down.

Like all fighters, Benavidez has a weakness, which is body shots. Morrell will likely zone on his stocky the late elvis gut to get a body shot break. That’s Benavidez’s kryptonite – landing heavy punches on his bread.

“David Morrell is a guy you can’t take lightly.” He is there for a reason, and one of the best Cubans right now,” said Diego Pacheco. Sean Zitteltalking about David Morrell, who will face WBC interim light heavyweight champion David Benavides on February 1st.

“I feel like David (Benavidez) is a monster. He doesn’t let anyone take that away from him. When he gets in there, he goes for the kill. Of course, I think Morrell will be his toughest opponent yet, but I still see David coming out on top. He (Morell) has a good jab, he’s a really good fighter and he keeps his distance very well.

“I feel he will make it difficult for David in the first rounds.” But as we saw with Caleb Plant, he did a good job of boxing in the first few rounds when he fought David. But David has a chip on his shoulder going forward. Even in clinches, he still gets hit.

Using Caleb Plant as the reason why Benavidez will beat Morel doesn’t make much sense. Plant is a smaller, older fighter with no power, and he’s a completely different fighter than the 27-year-old Morrell. Plant was never a puncher and was knocked out by Canelo Alvarez. His style is different from Morel’s.

“I feel like when you’re boxing a guy like David and he’s still coming out no matter what you do, it’s hard to keep the same game plan and stick to it. “When you have a monster like him, who hits big, hits in bunches, it’s tough,” Pacheco said.

That habit of Benavidez going forward led to him eating a lot of shots to the head against Oleksandr Gvozdyk in their fight last year on June 15th. Had Gvozdik targeted Benavidez’s body, instead of his cement block, he could have scored the stoppage.

When he finally went to Benavidez’s body in the 12th, he hurt him. Benavidez’s weak midsection and the way he leans in Fury-style leaves his body wide open. Pacheco raved about Benavidez’s ability to avoid head shots, saying he was leaning.

That’s true, but he leaves his midsection unprotected, which is the only area where he’s weak. He may not be able to withstand Morrell’s body shots or head shots as he punches harder than anyone he has faced before and is an excellent counter puncher.

“His defense is crazy. He stands so straight. He’s really good at pulling shots. Every camp, he gets better. “He’s learning,” Pacheco said.

Past-his-first opponents

Benavides’ defense isn’t great. If you watched his last two fights against Aleksandar Gvozdyk and Demetrius Andrade, he was just walking forward Robocop-style, blocking head shots, outplaying those two older fighters. Gvozdik is 37 and Andrade is 36.

Neither guy is even close to what they used to be a decade ago. It would be the same thing if Benavidez was on the wrong side of 30, going up against a younger fighter. It wouldn’t do well.