Diego Pacheco believes WBA common gentle heavyweight champion David Morrell will likely be David Benavidez’s”hardest opponent” once they meet on February 1st in the principle occasion on the T-Cell Area in Las Vegas.
Pacheco, a brilliant middleweight contender who trains with Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), predicts he’ll put on down Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and are available out on high. He compares Morrell to Caleb Plant, which is an odd comparability, and he sees Benavidez beginning sluggish however then approaching.
The Physique Shot Risk
If Benavidez will get hit as a lot by Morrell as he did by Plant, he will likely be in hassle on this combat. The facility of Morrell is method completely different than Plant’s, and he’ll goal his weak midsection to close him down.
Like all fighters, Benavidez has a weak point, which is taking physique photographs. Morrell will doubtless zone in on his chunky late Elvis intestine to attain a physique shot stoppage. That’s Benavidez’s kryptonite – taking arduous photographs to his breadbasket.
“David Morrell is a man you could’t take calmly. He’s up there for a cause, and among the best Cubans proper now,” stated Diego Pacheco to Sean Zittel, speaking about David Morrell, who faces WBC interim gentle heavyweight champion David Benavidez on February 1st.
“I really feel like David [Benavidez] is a monster. He doesn’t let anybody take it from him. When he goes in there, he’s going for the kill. In fact, I feel Morrell goes to be his hardest opponent but, however I nonetheless see David popping out on high. He [Morrell] has a very good jab, he’s a very good fighter, and he retains his distance rather well.
“I really feel like he’s going to make it arduous for David within the early rounds. However like we noticed with Caleb Plant, he was doing a very good job of boxing within the first few rounds when he fought David. However David has the chip on his shoulder the place he’s coming ahead. Even within the clinches, he’s nonetheless getting punches in.
Utilizing Caleb Plant as his cause for why Benavidez will defeat Morrell doesn’t make a lot sense. Plant is a smaller, older fighter with no energy, and he’s a completely completely different fighter than the 27-year-old Morrell. Plant has by no means been a puncher and was knocked out by Canelo Alvarez. His model is completely different than Morrell’s.
“I really feel while you’re boxing a man like David, and he’s nonetheless coming ahead it doesn’t matter what you do, it makes it arduous to maintain that very same recreation plan and follow it. When you’ve got a monster like him, throwing large punches, throwing punches in bunches, it’s arduous,” stated Pacheco.
That behavior of Benavidez strolling ahead resulted in him consuming loads of headshots in opposition to Oleksandr Gvozdyk of their combat final 12 months on June fifteenth. If Gvozdyk had focused Benavidez’s physique, as a substitute of his block of cement head, he would possibly scored a stoppage.
When he did lastly go to Benavidez’s physique within the twelfth, he damage him. Benavidez’s weak midsection and the way in which he leans again in a Fury-esque model leaves his physique vast open. Pachecho raved about Benavidez’s capacity to keep away from getting hit to the pinnacle, saying he leans.
That’s true, however he leaves his midsection unprotected, which is the one space the place he’s weak. He may not be capable of deal with Morrell’s punches to the physique or the pinnacle as a result of he hits more durable than anybody he’s confronted earlier than and is a wonderful counter-puncher.
“His protection is loopy. He stands so straight. He’s actually good at pulling again at punches. Each camp, he’s getting higher. He’s studying,” stated Pacheco.
Previous-His-Prime Opponents
Benavidez’s protection is just not nice. For those who watched his final two fights in opposition to Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Demetrius Andrade, he was simply strolling ahead Robocop model, blocking photographs along with his head, outworking these two older fighters. Gvozdyk is 37 and Andrade 36.
Neither man is wherever close to what they as soon as have been a decade in the past. It might be the identical factor if Benavidez have been on the flawed aspect of 30, going up in opposition to a youthful fighter. He wouldn’t do properly.
