David Morrell Jr. (12-1, 9 KOs) defeated 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Imam Khataev (10-1, 9 KOs) by a controversial 10-round split decision in the fight of the night in terms of drama on Saturday night at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York.
The scores were 95-94 for Khataev and 96-93, 95-94 for Morrell. It wasn’t a robbery in a true sense, as Morrell had fought well enough to win two of the first five rounds.
Morrell’s Comeback After Knockdown
Then, from the sixth round, Morrell dominated the shorter Khataev with jab and combination punching. When Morrell began to sit down on his shots and throw sustained punches, Khataev was overwhelmed.
Morrell started slow, seemingly giving away rounds to Khataev by not throwing enough, and frequently shelling up with his high guard. In the fifth, Morrell was clowning around and got dropped by a right hand from Khataev.
After the knockdown, Morrell fought well, using his jab and getting the better of the shorter Khataev from the outside in the sixth. From the eighth round on, Khataev wore down from the pace and the heavy punches from Morrell.
In the ninth and tenth, Morrell hurt Khataev with a barrage of shots that had him close to being stopped. What was weird is that each time Morrell hurt Khataev, he would back off and cover up, letting him recover and go on the attack.
Khataev Overwhelmed by Morrell
Morrell had the Russian Khataev on the brink of being knocked out in both of the final two rounds, and inexplicably backed off. He could have easily stopped Khataev if he had continued to attack, but chose not to for some reason.
Morrell Open to Khataev Rematch
It was an exciting fight and by far the best on the card. The main event and co-feature didn’t match the Morrell-Khataev for sustained drama. After the fight, Morrell said he was open to giving Khataev a rematch if he wanted one. It would be up to Turki Alalshikh if he wants to put them together again. If not, Morrell’s promoters will likely have him move on to other fighters.
