Morrell’s Path To Victory: Outworking Imam Khataev, Avoiding Past Mistakes Against Benavidez

David Morrell needs to fight at a faster pace and throw more punches to defeat 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Imam Khataev in their 10-round light heavyweight fight on July 12th in Queens, New York.

The former two-division world champion Morrell (10-1, 9 KOs) lost his last fight to David Benavidez by being outworked by him. Although Morrell has the better power, he wasn’t matching the high output from ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez and wound up losing a 12-round unanimous decision.

Morrell’s Punch Volume Strategy

In hindsight, Morrell should have trained for volume-punching at medium distance for that, because he was landing huge shots on him. What was missing was the consistent output. You could see the damage that Morrell did to the face of Benavidez, who looked like Frankenstein’s monster in appearance at the end.

Against Khataev, who is viewed as the next Artur Beterbiev, Morrell has to let his hands go and focus on outpunching him. Setting a fast pace is the key to victory against Khataev.

Morrell, 27, could lose this fight if he tries to box Khataev. The judges will be impressed with the heavy, eye-catching shots from the Russian Khataev, who hits hard with every shot. It’ll be a mistake for David to jab and move against him all night. Morrell doesn’t move well enough to escape the pressure from a fighter like Khataev.

It’s difficult to gauge how good Khataev is because the opposition he’s faced since turning pro in 2021 has been of a lower level. Power-wise, Khataev, 30, looks on the level of Artur Beterbiev, but he doesn’t have his gas tank.

Despite Khataev’s Olympic credentials, his promoters have chosen to match him against lesser fighters. Now, he’s about to take a huge step up in class, fighting Morrell, and it could be a shock, getting hit by this type of fighter.

Imam Khataev’s Stamina Issues

Khataev (10-0, 9 KOs) is the biggest puncher Morrell will have fought during his six-year pro career, but he’s shown to have serious stamina problems.

In Khataev’s last fight against Durval Elias Palacio, he gassed out in the championship rounds and appeared close to being stopped in the ninth round. Morrell is on another level than Palacio and Khataev run into trouble by the midpoint of the fight if he empties his gas tank against him.

DAZN PPV Fight Card

Edgar Berlanga vs Hamzah Sheeraz
Shakur Stevenson vs William Zepeda
Alberto Puello vs Subriel Matias
David Morrell vs Imam Khataev
Reito Tsutsumi vs Erik Hanley