Undefeated Cuban boxer David Morrell (10-0, 9 KOs) is set to make his light-heavyweight debut on Saturday night, August 3rd, when he faces Radivoje Kalajdzic (29-2, 21 KOs) at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
(Credit: Mark Robinson Matchroom Boxing)
In his first bout in his new weight class, Morrell will be fighting for the WBA title. Since the start of his pro career back in 2019, Morrell has competed as a super-middleweight, but due to the politics of boxing, Morrell has moved up for this particular bout.
Back in August 2020, in only the third fight of his professional career, David Morrell defeated Lennox Allen by way of unanimous decision and won the WBA interim super-middleweight belt. Morrell would go on to successfully defend his title on multiple occasions.
For the past few years, Morrell was seeking the opportunity to face former two-time WBC super-middleweight world champion David Benavidez. The Benavidez vs Morrell fight never materialized due to the fact that Benavidez had aspirations to fight the undisputed super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
Benavidez was the WBC mandatory for three years, and he never received the opportunity to fight for the undisputed super-middleweight crown. David Morrell was the WBA mandatory, but Canelo never once mentioned his name.
David Benavidez would aggressively pursue the fight as he called out Canelo on multiple occasions. David Morrell took a more subtle approach because he already knew Canelo didn’t want to fight him because he believed Canelo saw him as a serious threat.
Once Canelo signed his three-fight deal with PBC, most fight fans assumed we would at the very least get the Canelo Alvarez vs David Benavidez matchup. Canelo would proceed to navigate his way around the ultimate danger by fighting 154-pound champion Jermell Charlo and Jaime Munguia.
Canelo’s latest opponent selection is receiving a great deal of backlash due to the fact that his opponent Edgar Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) has never faced elite competition.
The last time Berlanga competed inside of the squared circle he scored a sixth round knockout victory over Padraig McCrory.
David Morrell was sitting ringside, and he wasn’t impressed with Edgar Berlanga’s performance. During a ringside interview with Fighthype, Morrell referenced Berlanga by stating, “he’s easy money for me.”
Now, the man who David Morrell called easy money is fighting for the undisputed super-middleweight crown due to the fact that Canelo probably views Berlanga as being easy money. After his press conference, David Morrell was asked on a scale of 1-10 what level of threat is Berlanga to Canelo, and Morrell gave Berlanga a 5.
Canelo Alvarez is a future Hall of Famer, but the way he sabotaged the division by holding the belts hostage and avoiding the elite competition is something that true-fight fans will always remember. Morrell doesn’t normally speak about the way Canelo moves, but since he was asked, he gave the uncut truth about Canelo vs Berlanga.
“Man, this fight is bulls***. Everybody knows.” Morrell went on to say, “Berlanga is easy work for him. Before, he brought Charlo to 168, too. Everybody’s here. For me, this fight’s bulls***.”
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