David Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs) weighed in at 174.8 lbs, while his opponent Imam Khataev (10-0, 9 KOs) scaled in at 174.8 pounds at today’s ceremonial weigh-in before the official one for their light heavyweight fight this Saturday, July 12th on DAZN PPV in Queens, New York.

Morrell vs. Khataev: Weigh-in Results

David Morrell – 174.8 vs. mam Khataev – 174.8

Morrell will fight for the first time since losing to David Benavidez, and he’s got a lot to prove after that performance. He needs to show that he can change his fighting style to become more aggressive, as he was waiting too long to go on the attack in that defeat. The match highlighted Morrell’s need to adapt his style to throw more combinations.

The 5’10” Khataev has the power and the Betebiev-esque style to force Morrell to throw more for him to win this fight. He doesn’t want to turn it into a Tom and Jerry type of contest by moving all night to evade the power shots from Khataev. While that approach might work for Morrell to win, he won’t impress the fans or Turki Alalshikh. Even worse is that Morrell could get booed by the fans.

“You have a failed test from an agency, but not an agency that the local commission acknowledges,” said promoter Eddie Hearn to the Ring Magazine channel about why Imam Khataev is still being allowed to fight David Morrell on Saturday after The International Testing Agency (ITA) revealed that he’d tested positive for clomifene and its metabolites.”

VADA Testing: Morrell-Khataev Bout Proceeds

“In this situation, the New York commission will say, ‘What is ITA? What is the IBA [International Boxing Association]? I don’t know what that is. You’ve been signed up for this camp for VADA. You’ve passed every test. That’s who we acknowledge. We don’t have an issue,’” said Hearn.

“It’s kind of like a gray area. The best thing for a promoter to do in this situation, because they’re not the decision-maker, is to leave it to the commission. Say to the New York State Athletic Commission, ‘This is the situation. It’s your situation,’ and that’s probably what [Turki Alalshikh] has done. I guess the fight will proceed on that basis.”

So, basically, Hearn is saying the New York Commission went with the agency that did the drug testing for Saturday’s fight, VADA, and Khataev hadn’t tested positive for any banned substances; hence, the Morrell-Khataev bout will be allowed to go ahead for Saturday.