Morales knocked down Chavez twice early on

Morales, previously in the featherweight division, received scores of 118-108, 117-109 and 115-112 from the judges.

"Even though I knocked him down twice, I knew it wasn't going to be a short fight," said Morales.

"Truly every time I hit him it really hurt my hands."

The win took Morales' record to 46-1 while Chavez, who had to fight virtually one-handed after damaging his right shoulder in the third round, fell to 40-3.

The fight got off to an electric start as Chavez initially took the upper hand before twice being knocked to the canvas.

If my shoulder gets better, I'm going to ask for a rematch Jesus Chavez

"It was a tough fight," added Morales. "I got hurt early. I had to get it back under control."

Despite being on the back foot for much of it, Chavez battled on and opened a cut near Morales' eye in the fourth.

Chavez, making the first defence of a title won from Thailand's Singmannassuk Sirimongkol last August, picked up a matching cut near his left eye two rounds later but struggled more with his shoulder.

Even with the injury, he continued to cause Morales difficulties.

And afterwards Chavez said: "He should stay at super featherweight as long as he can because if my shoulder gets better, I'm going to ask for a rematch."