{"id":431293,"date":"2026-02-18T00:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/431293\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T00:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:12:08","slug":"callum-smith-vs-david-morrell-jr-official-for-april-18-in-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/431293\/","title":{"rendered":"Callum Smith vs David Morrell Jr official for April 18 in Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">After an agonizing series of delays, Callum Smith and David Morrell Jr are officially set to meet in a tantalizing light heavyweight showdown for the interim WBO title on April 18th at Liverpool\u2019s M&amp;S Bank Arena.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Hometown fighter Smith (31-2, 22 KO) is coming off a cracker of a fight with Joshua Buatsi last February, which saw him overpower his undefeated opponent and prove that he still had something left in the tank after the prior year\u2019s destructive loss to Artur Beterbiev. Despite being 35 with a number of donnybrooks under his belt, he\u2019s a legitimate player at 175 now that the Bivol-Beterbiev era appears to be winding down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It\u2019s questionable whether the same can be said of Morrell (12-1, 9 KO), a monstrous super middleweight who\u2019s looked worryingly mortal at light heavyweight. Since capping off his run at 168 with a two-round mauling of Sena Agbeko, he\u2019s taken a decision over Radivoje Kalajdzic, lost his 0 to David Benavidez, and taken a highly controversial split decision over Imam Khataev in which Morrell hit the canvas for the first time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In terms of action potential, this is among the best fights on the schedule. We\u2019ll keep you posted as the undercard comes together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After an agonizing series of delays, Callum Smith and David Morrell Jr are officially set to meet in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-431293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431293","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=431293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}