Can Morrell’s body shots stop Benavidez?

Diego Pacheco believes regular 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 1.

Pacheco, a super middleweight contender who trains with Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), predicts he will wear down Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and come out on top. He compares Morrell to Caleb Plant, which is a weird comparison, and he sees how Benavidez starts off slow but then picks up.

The body shot threat

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

Like all fighters, Benavidez has a weakness, which is taking body shots. Morrell will probably on his chunky zone late elvis gut to score a body shot stop. This is Benavidez’s kryptonite – with hard shots to his breadbasket.

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

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

“I feel he’s going to make it difficult for David in the early 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 the chip on his shoulder going forward. Even in the clinches he still gets punched.

Using Caleb Plant as his reason why Benavidez will defeat Morrell doesn’t make much sense. A smaller, older fighter with zero power, Plant is a completely different fighter than the 27-year-old Morrell. Plant has never been a puncher and was knocked out by Canelo Alvarez. His style is different from Morrell’s.

“I feel like when you box a guy like David, and he keeps coming forward no matter what you do, it makes it hard to keep the same game plan and stick to it. When you have a monster like him, throwing big punches, throwing punches in bunches, it’s tough,” Pacheco said.

That habit of Benavidez walking forward led to him eating a lot of head shots against Oleksandr Gvozdyk in their June 15 fight last year. Had Gvozdyk targeted Benavidez’s body, instead of his block of cement head, he might have gotten a stoppage.

When he finally went to Benavidez’s body in the 12th, he hurt him. Benavidez’s weak midsection and the way he leans back in a Fury-like style leaves his body wide open. Pachecho raved about Benavidez’s ability to not get hit to the head, saying he was leaning.

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

“His defense is crazy. He stands up straight. He is very good at retreating from punches. Every camp he gets better. He’s learning,” Pacheco said.

Past-His-Prime Opponents

Benavidez’s defense isn’t great. If you watched his last two fights against Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Demetrius Andrade, he just walked forward Robocop style, blocked shots with his head and outworked those two older fighters. Gvozdyk is 37 and Andrade 36.

Neither guy is anywhere near what they were a decade ago. It would be the same if Benavidez was on the wrong side of 30, against a younger fighter. He would not do well.