David Morrell Takes Zak Chelli on 9 May in Manchester
David Morrell will make his belated debut against Zak Chelli on Saturday, 9 May after Callum Smith pulled out injured. The fight has landed on the Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois undercard at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, giving Morrell a new route into a major bill after the original matchup fell apart.
Morrell Gets Chelli in Manchester
Morrell is a two-weight WBA regular champion, and this will be only his second fight in six years with no world title on the line. He had been set to contest Smith’s WBO interim 175lb title a few weeks earlier in Liverpool before the injury withdrawal changed the plan.
Queensberry found a place for him on a card being screened live on DAZN PPV and Ultimate. For anyone tracking the light heavyweight picture, that keeps Morrell active while moving him onto one of the biggest domestic bills of the spring.
Zac Chelli Returns After Layoff
Chelli, 28, comes in after 11 months out of the ring and arrives with a mixed record of results that includes defeats to Kody Davies in 2019, Mark Jeffers in an English title fight and Callum Simpson at Oakwell Stadium in Barnsley. He also owns wins over Germaine Brown and Anthony Sims Jr., and he avenged an early-career draw with Jack Cullen to dethrone the then-British and Commonwealth super middleweight king.
That makes him a live opponent rather than a placeholder. Morrell does not get the Smith title fight he was originally set for, but he does get a ranked, experienced challenger who has already gone through several different levels of opposition.
Benavidez Still Stands Out
The only man to beat Morrell in 21 fights is David Benavidez. Benavidez outpointed him in February of last year in a WBC interim and WBA regular light heavyweight title unification, but Morrell still sent him down before losing on the cards.
That loss remains the main reference point for Morrell’s move at 175lb. He had already made six defences of his super middleweight WBA belt before stepping up, and he then outscored Radivoje Kalajdzic for the vacant light heavyweight version of the title.
For the reader, the immediate change is simple: Smith is out, Chelli is in, and Morrell’s return now sits on a high-profile Manchester undercard rather than the Liverpool title assignment that first framed his spring. The date stays the same, the stage changes, and the path back into a world-title fight now runs through Chelli first.
