Can Morrell’s body shots stop Benavidez?

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

Pacheco, a super middleweight contender who trains with Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), is predicted to wear down Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and come out on top. He compares Morrell to Caleb Plant, which is an odd comparison, and sees Benavidez starting slow but then picking up.

The threat of body shots

If Benavidez gets hit by both Morrell and Plant, he will be in trouble in this fight. Morrell’s power is very different from Plant’s, and he will target his weak side to shut him down. Like all fighters, Benavidez has a weakness in his game, and that is taking shots to the body. Morrell is likely to approach his thick the late elvis gut to mark a body shot stop.

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

“I feel like David (Benavidez) is a monster. He doesn’t let anybody take 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 (Morrell) has a good jab, he’s a very good fighter and he keeps his distance very well.

“I feel like he’s going to make it difficult for David in the early rounds. But as we saw with Caleb Plant, he was doing a good job of boxing in the early rounds when he fought David. But David has the chip on his shoulder where he Even in the clinches, he’s still getting punched.

Using Caleb Plant as a reason why Benavidez will defeat Morrell doesn’t make a lot of sense. Plant is a smaller, older fighter with no power, and he’s 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 think when you’re boxing a guy like David, and he’s still coming forward, no matter what you do, it’s hard to keep the same game plan and stick with it. When you’ve got a monster like him, throwing big punches, throwing punches in bouquets, it is difficult”, said Pacheco.

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

When he finally went to Benavidez’s body on the 12th, he hurt him. Benavidez’s weak midsection and the way he leans back in a Fury-esque style leave his body wide open. Pachecho praised Benavidez’s ability to avoid being hit in the head, saying he ducked.

True, but it leaves his core unprotected, which is the only area where he is weak. He may not be able to withstand Morrell’s punches to the body or head because he hits harder than anyone he has faced before and is an excellent counter-striker.

“His defense is crazy. He stays so upright. He’s really good at punching back. Every camp, he’s getting better. He’s learning,” Pacheco said.

His main opponents

Benavidez’s defense isn’t great. If you watched his last two fights against Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Demetrius Andrade, he was just going Robocop-style, blocking shots with his head, overpowering these two bigger fighters. Gvozdyk is 37 and Andrade is 36.

Neither is close to what they were a decade ago. It would be the same if Benavidez was on the wrong side of 30, facing a younger fighter. It wouldn’t do him any good.