Diego Pacheco believes reigning WBA light heavyweight champion David Morrell will be a “tough opponent” for David Benavidez when they meet on February 1 in the main event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Pacheco, who competes as a super middleweight in training with Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), is projected to outscore Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and come out on top. He compares Morrell to Caleb Plant, which are strange comparisons, and sees Benavidez start slow but then come on.
Physical Shooting Threat
If Benavidez gets hit as hard by Morrell as he did by Plant, he will be in trouble for this fight. Morrell’s strength is very 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, and that takes body shots. Morrell will probably fit into his chunky Elvis the guts body shots.
“David Morrell is a guy you can’t take lightly. He’s there for a reason, and he’s one of the best Cubans right now,” said Diego Pacheco to Sean Zittel, referring to David Morrell, who will face WBC interim light heavyweight champion David Benavidez on February 1.
“I feel like David [Benavidez] it is a beast. He doesn’t let anyone take from him. If he goes in there, he will kill. Yes, I think Morrell will be his toughest opponent yet, but I still see David coming out on top. He [Morrell] he has a nice jab, he’s a good fighter, and he keeps his distance well.
“I think he will give David a hard time in the early rounds. But as we saw with Caleb Plant, he was doing a good job of boxing in the first few rounds when he fought David. But David held his shoulder when he came forward. Even in clothes, he has entered with fists.
Using Caleb Plant as his reason why Benavidez is going to beat Morrell makes no sense. Plant is a younger, older fighter with less stamina, and 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’re boxing like David, and you’re still coming through no matter what you’re doing, it makes it hard to keep the same game plan and stick to it. “When you have a monster like that, we throw big punches, we throw punches in bunches, it’s difficult,” said Pacheco.
That dominant Benavidez habit resulted in him landing a lot of headshots against Oleksandr Gvozdyk in their fight last year on June 15. If Gvozdyk had targeted Benavidez’s body, instead of his cement head, he might have scored a hit.
When he finally went to Benavidez’s body at 12, he hurt him. Benavidez’s weakness in the middle and the way he leans in a Fury-esque style leaves his body open. Pachecho spoke highly of Benavidez’s ability to avoid head shots, saying he leans in.
That’s true, but he leaves his midfield unprotected, which is one area where he’s weak. He may not be able to handle Morrell’s punches to the body or head because he hits harder than anyone he has faced before and is a very good counter cook.
“His defense is crazy. He stood straight. He is very good at punching back. Every camp, you get better. He is studying,” said Pacheco.
His Past Opponents
Benavidez’s defense is not good. If you watched his last two fights against Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Demetrius Andrade, he was just going Robocop style, blocking shots with his head, outmaneuvering those two older fighters. Vozdyk is 37 and Andrade is 36.
No guy is close to what they were ten years ago. It would be the same thing if Benavidez is on the wrong side of 30, going up against a younger fighter. He wouldn’t do well.
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