{"id":179653,"date":"2025-10-05T01:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T01:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/179653\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T01:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T01:31:09","slug":"callum-smith-vs-david-morrell-likely-for-early-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/179653\/","title":{"rendered":"Callum Smith vs David Morrell likely for early next year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">A showdown between Callum Smith and David Morrell seems likely to come in early 2026, with promoter Eddie Hearn telling The Ring that the fight is being worked on for a date in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Smith (31-2, 22 KO) and Morrell (12-1, 9 KO) are both in the mix at 175 lbs, where Dmitry Bivol holds three belts but has been inactive since his February win over Artur Beterbiev, and David Benavidez holds the WBC title. Benavidez will defend on November 22 against Anthony Yarde.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">There seem to be plans for Benavidez and Beterbiev to fight in 2026, if both are successful next month on the same show, where Beterbiev will face Deon Nicholson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Smith and Morrell, then, are natural opponents as they look to force their way into the title picture with a strong win. The Brit \u201cMundo\u201d Smith moved up to 175 lbs back in 2021, following a one-sided loss to Canelo Alvarez at 168, and has gone 4-1, with a loss to Beterbiev in 2024. He\u2019s won two straight, including a good performance in February in victory over Joshua Buatsi, which gave Smith the interim WBO title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Morrell lost a decision to Benavidez in February, and followed up with a close, debated win over Imam Khataev in July, which was no easy bounce-back matchup. The Cuban appears headed for another fight at true contender level.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">How do you like the matchup, and who do you think wins if it happens?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A showdown between Callum Smith and David Morrell seems likely to come in early 2026, with promoter Eddie&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-179653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-news","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179653","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=179653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}