Osvary David Morrell Gutierrez Jr. (born January 18, 1998) is a Cuban

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

. He held the

World Boxing Association The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is an international professional boxing organization based in Panama. The WBA awards its world championship title at the professional level. Founded ...

(Regular version) light-heavyweight title from 2024 to 2025 and previously the WBA (Regular version)

super-middleweight Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing In professional boxing, super middleweight is contested between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, in which boxers can weigh between 160 pounds ( ...

title from 2021 to 2024. As an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

, he won gold medals at the 2016 Youth World Championships and the 2017 Cuban National Championships.

Amateur career

During an

career in which Morrell compiled a record of 130–5, he won gold medals at the 2016 Youth World Championships, where he was named "Best Boxer of the Tournament", 2017 Cuban National Championships, and the 2018 India Open International Boxing Tournament.

Professional career

Morrell made his professional debut on August 28, 2019, scoring a first-round

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

(KO) victory over Yendris Rodriguez Valdez at the

Minneapolis Armory The Minneapolis Armory is a historic event center and former National Guard armory located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Built by the Public Works Administration in 1936, the building was occupied by several Army and Naval Mi ...

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. He scored a second-round KO victory against Quinton Rankin in November before facing

Lennox Allen Lennox Alleyne (born 1 July 1985), better known as Lennox Allen, is a Guyanese professional boxer who challenged for the WBA interim super-middleweight title in 2020. Professional career Allen made his professional debut on 16 April 2004, sc ...

for the vacant WBA interim

super middleweight Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing In professional boxing, super middleweight is contested between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, in which boxers can weigh between 160 pounds ( ...

title on August 8, 2020, at the

Microsoft Theater The Peacock Theater, formerly Nokia Theatre and Microsoft Theater, is a music and theater venue at L.A. Live in the Downtown Los Angeles, downtown core of Los Angeles, California, United States. The theater auditorium seats 7,100 and holds one ...

in Los Angeles, California. The bout featured on the undercard of the interim

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

title fight between

Thomas Dulorme Thomas Dulorme Cordero ( ; born January 29, 1990) is a Puerto Rican professional boxer who challenged for the WBO light welterweight title in 2015. Early life and amateur career Dulorme was born on the island of Saint Martin and lived there ...

and

Jamal James Jamal James (born July 27, 1988) is an American professional boxer who held the WBA (Regular) welterweight title from 2020 to 2021. Amateur career As an amateur James represented Circle of Discipline boxing club in Minneapolis. In his final yea ...

. The event was originally scheduled to take place on April 11 but was postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In what was described as a dominant performance, Morrell captured the WBA interim title via twelve-round

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighte ...

(UD) with the judges' scorecards reading 120–108, 119–109, and 118–110. He was set to make the first defense of his title against Mike Gavronski on December 26 at the Shine Exposition Hall in Los Angeles. After Morrell failed to weigh within the super middleweight limit, reports claimed that he had been stripped of his title. However, it was later revealed that a clause in the fight contract allowed for the fight to continue as a non-title contest. Morrell defeated Gavronski via third-round KO. The following month, Morrell was elevated from interim champion to Regular champion. The first defense of his Regular title came against Mario Cazares on June 27, 2021, at the Minneapolis Armory. Morrell Retained his title via first-round KO. After defending his title on November 5, 2022, against Aidos Yerbossynuly, knocking him out in the 12th round, Yerbossynuly was hospitalized and put into an induced coma due to a

subdural hematoma A subdural hematoma (SDH) is a type of bleeding in which a collection of blood—usually but not always associated with a traumatic brain injury—gathers between the inner layer of the dura mater and the arachnoid mater of the meninges surrou ...

. Morrell was scheduled to face Radivoje Kalajdzic at

BMO Stadium BMO Stadium (formerly Banc of California Stadium) is a soccer-specific stadium in the Exposition Park, Los Angeles, Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the home of Major League Soccer's Los Angeles FC ...

in Los Angeles on August 3, 2024. Morrell defeated Kalajdzic by unanimous decision and won the vacant WBA "Regular" light heavyweight title. On October 8, 2024 it was announced that Morrell would face

David Benavidez Anthony David Benavidez (born December 17, 1996) is an American professional boxer who has held world championships in two weight classes. He has held the World Boxing Association (WBA) light heavyweight title (WBA (Regular), Regular version) si ...

, who at that time held interim WBC light heavyweight title.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

*
David Morrell - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings
a
Box.Live
, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Morrell, David 1998 births Living people Cuban male boxers Sportspeople from Santa Clara, Cuba World super-middleweight boxing champions World light-heavyweight boxing champions World Boxing Association champions Southpaw boxers 21st-century Cuban sportsmen

Amateur career

Professional career

Professional boxing record

See also

References

External links