Smith–Morrell Head To November 25 WBO Purse Bid Standoff

A purse bid between WBO interim light heavyweight champion Callum Smith and #2-ranked contender David Morrell is scheduled for November 25, 2025, at the WBO’s headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Morrell’s promoter at TGB and Smith’s Matchroom promoter failed to reach a deal, forcing a purse bid.  The bid starts at $300K.

What’s at Stake for Callum Smith

It’s a tough fight for the 35-year-old Callum (31-2, 22 KOs) to have to defend against his mandatory Morrell (12-1, 9 KOs). The fight was ordered on July 22, 2025. Smith had wanted to face WBC light heavyweight champion David Benavidez, but that didn’t happen.

Now, Callum is faced with having to go through the 27-year-old Cuba-born Morrell to hold onto his WBO interim 175-lb title. That belt is important because it keeps Smith in position to challenge WBO champion Dmitry Bivol.

Purse bid alert: The Interim WBO Light Heavyweight Championship bout between Callum Smith and David Morrell heads to purse bid on November 25, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. AST at WBO Headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico. pic.twitter.com/PY1Pyejlf7

— WBO (@WorldBoxingOrg) November 19, 2025

Morrell’s Recent Struggles

Morrell didn’t shine in his last fight, edging previously unbeaten light heavyweight contender Imam Khataev (10-1, 9 KOs) by a 10-round split decision on July 12, 2025, in Queens, New York. That could have been an easier fight for Morrell, but he fought hard only in brief spurts. Much of the time, he would move around or cover up and allow Khataev to unload heavy shots.

In the fifth, Morrell was dropped while pulling away with his hands down. Although he wasn’t hurt, it gave the impression that he was in trouble due to Khataev jumping on him while he shelled up.

In Morrell’s fight before that, he lost to David Benavidez by a 12-round unanimous decision on February 1, 2025. It was a similar performance by Morrell, with him fighting in brief spurts and covering up for long stretches, allowing Benavidez to fire flurries on his guard. Despite showing superior power to ‘The Mexican Monster,’ Morrell didn’t let his hands go enough.

Fighting with his back against the ropes was the wrong thing for him to do against Benavidez. The scores were 118-108, 115-111, and 115-111.

Can Abel Sanchez Fix Morrell?

Those two performances by Morrell showed that he needed to make some changes. He’s subsequently placed trainer Ronnie Shields with Abel Sanchez, and is now training out of Big Bear, California.

Sanchez is a great motivator, and he speaks Spanish fluently. So, that should make the transition easier. If he can fix Morrell, he’s got a gem on his hands, who could take over the 175-lb division and avenge his loss to Benavidez. It would make Sanchez look like a genius.

Callum defeated Joshua Buatsi by a 12-round unanimous decision earlier this year on February 22nd, 2025, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was an all-action war in which Smith took over in the later rounds, hurting the previously unbeaten Buatsi several times with heavy shots. The scores were 115-113, 119-110, and 116-112.

We don’t know how much that fight took out of Smith, as it was one of his more grueling ones of his career. He appeared to take more punishment in that fight than he did in his seventh-round knockout loss to then IBF, WBC, and WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev on January 13, 2024, and his 12-round unanimous decision loss to Canelo Alvarez on December 19, 2020.