“It was something that was pretty bad. There was no going back. It’s not something that can be fixed in three or four weeks,” Hearn said.
This left the promotion with a decision to make. Rather than cancel the show, Matchroom moved forward and reshuffled the card despite losing one of its strongest fights.
My math shows we’ve reached 270 days since this whole process started with the Smith vs. Morrell fight ordered by the WBO on July 21, 2025. That’s almost nine months of waiting, only to pull the rug out right at the end.
The WBO is already tightening the screws on Callum Smith. They moved quickly to ensure that David Morrell was not left in limbo for another nine months.
The WBO issued a formal notice following the cancellation giving Smith’s team exactly 10 days to submit a certified medical report. They need a specific diagnosis, a clinical prognosis and a definite return-to-training date.
“You have to soak it up, take the hit financially and go,” Hearn said. “Everyone knew what a big fight Smith-Morrell was, and you were incredibly deflated at that moment.”
With the original attack down, the focus now shifts to timing. Hearn said the intention is to revisit the game once Smith is fully recovered, with Liverpool still the target venue.
“We’d like to do it here in Liverpool,” he said.
No date has been set for the rescheduled fight, and no alternate plans have been outlined for Morrell while Smith recovers.
The WBO’s priority is to end the interim status so that the winner can face the Bivol-Eifert winner. If Smith’s injury is as bad as Hearn has suggested, the WBO will likely pull the trigger to strip him by the start of the summer to keep the division going.
