Diego Pacheco believes 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 who trains with Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), anticipates wearing down Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and coming out on top. He compares Morrell to Caleb Plant, which is an odd comparison, and sees Benavidez start slow but then come 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 power is vastly different than Plant’s, and he will target his weak midsection to shut him down. Like all fighters, Benavidez has a weakness in his game, which is body shots. Morrell will probably focus on his chunky late elvis gut score a body blow stop.
“David Morrell is a guy you can’t take lightly. He’s up there for a reason and he’s one of the best Cubans right now,” said Diego Pacheco to 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 that from him. Once he gets in there, he goes in 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] he has a good punch, he’s a really good fighter and he keeps his distance very well.
“I feel he will make it difficult for David in the early rounds. But as we saw with Caleb Plant, he boxed well in the first few rounds when he fought David. But David has a problem on his shoulder as he comes forward. Even in the clinch, he’s still getting punched.
Using Caleb Plant as the reason why Benavidez will defeat Morrell doesn’t make much sense. Plant is a smaller, older fighter with no power, and is 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 Morrell’s.
“I feel like when you’re boxing a guy like David and he’s still going forward 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 resulted in him eating a lot of head shots against Oleksandr Gvozdyk in their fight last year on June 15th. Had Gvozdyk targeted Benavidez’s body, instead of his concrete head, he might 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 back Fury-style leaves his body wide open. Pachecho raved about Benavidez’s ability to avoid a head shot, saying he was leaning.
That’s true, but he leaves his midsection unprotected, and that’s the only area where he’s weak. He may not be able to deal with Morrell’s body shots or head shots as he punches harder than anyone he has faced so far and is an excellent counter puncher.
“His defense is crazy. He stands so straight. He’s really good at pulling shots. He gets better with every camp. 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 was just walking forward Robocop style, blocking head shots, outclassing those two older fighters. Gvozdyk is 37 and Andrade is 36.
Neither guy is even close to what he was ten years ago. It would be the same thing if Benavidez was on the wrong side of 30, against a younger fighter. It wouldn’t do well.
