{"id":179295,"date":"2025-10-04T19:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T19:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/179295\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T19:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T19:30:08","slug":"morrell-vs-smith-likely-for-saudi-arabia-in-early-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/179295\/","title":{"rendered":"Morrell Vs. Smith Likely For Saudi Arabia In Early 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Promoter Eddie Hearn says the David Morrell vs. Callum Smith fight will likely happen in early 2026 in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Hearn states that he spoke with Turki Alalshikh about the fight and that they \u201cpretty much agreed\u2019 to place the Morrell-Smith fight on one of the cards in early 2026 in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

The WBO ordered the fight between interim 175-lb champion Smith (31-2, 22 KOs) and #2 Morrell (12-1, 9 KOs) on July 21, 2025, with the idea to keep their belt active.<\/p>\n

A Brutal Test for Callum<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tough fight for Callum, 35, who is coming off a grueling 12-round unanimous decision win over Joshua Buatsi earlier this year on February 22. Going from that hard fight into what could be an even tougher one against the Cuban Morrell won\u2019t be easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh] about staging that as part of a Saudi card in early 2026,\u201d said promoter Eddie Hearn to Ring Magazine<\/a> about the David Morrell vs. Callum Smith fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve pretty much agreed to that, and that\u2019s a tremendous fight, a brilliant fight. Yeah, I think you\u2019ll see that fight land in Saudi hopefully in early 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith was hoping to fight for a world title against IBF, WBA, and WBO light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol. However, he\u2019s out of action following his recent back surgery in August 2025. Bivol won\u2019t be back for the remainder of the year until 2026.<\/p>\n

Morrell, 27, defeated 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Imam Khataev by a 10-round split decision last summer on July 12 in Queens, New York. That was a peculiar fight, in which Morrell fought in spurts and showed off at times.<\/p>\n

Morrell\u2019s Lapses Against Khataev<\/p>\n

Khataev took advantage of Morrell\u2019s lapse of concentration to drop him in the fifth round. That was a round in which Morrell had been dominating. After that knockdown, Morrell stayed dialed in the remainder of the fight to win a decision.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be harder for Morrell against the 6\u20193\u2033 Smith of his height and his aggressive style of fighting. He\u2019s going to have to stay focused at all times if he doesn\u2019t want to fall behind and get knocked out.<\/p>\n

Ken Woods has been a senior writer at Boxing News 24 since 2013, covering the sport from every angle. With years of ringside reporting, he delivers fight news, results, and analysis that cut through the noise. Ken\u2019s work consistently spotlights champions, contenders, and prospects, giving fans a sharp, knowledgeable view of the global boxing scene.<\/p>\n

Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb Eddie Hearn Says David Morrell vs. Callum Smith Likely Headed to Saudi Arabia in Early 2026<\/p>\n

Last Updated on 10\/03\/2025 \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Promoter Eddie Hearn says the David Morrell vs. Callum Smith fight will likely happen in early 2026 in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[39356,2560,19787,99,18059,6573,19786,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-179295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-bmo-stadium","tag-boxing","tag-fight-night","tag-los-angeles","tag-mark-robinson","tag-matchroom-boxing","tag-riydah-season","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}