David Morrell Jr., Switching Duck Season for Riyadh Season

David Morrell Jr. (10-0, 9 KOs) is making his light heavyweight debut this Saturday, looking to capture a secondary WBA light heavyweight “world” title to replace the secondary WBA “world” title he’s leaving behind at super middleweight.

The Cuban rising star will be meeting Radivoje Kalajdzic (29-2, 21 KOs) on the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov undercard at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, under the Saudi Riyadh Season banner.

“All the champions at super middleweight have looked elsewhere, as none of them wanted to fight me,” Morrell recently told BoxingScene. “I don’t need to mention any names, but everyone knows who has been ducking me. So now I take my talents to the light heavyweight division, where I believe I will shine even more.”

The name he didn’t mention, of course, is unified super middleweight champ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who hasn’t even spoken the undefeated fighter’s name and, most likely, would’ve reached his self-imposed retirement age before ever doing so.

But Morrell may have also been talking about WBC interim super middleweight champ David Benavidez, who has similarly moved up to light heavyweight to capture a secondary title. Because, while Benavidez had been chasing a Canelo fight in vain, Morrell and his people had been calling out Benavidez.

Although Benavidez and his trainer/fighter Jose Benavidez Sr. said many times that they’d fight Morrell any time, anywhere, the fight never materialized.

So, if you can’t get the golden goose or the runner-up golden goose, you move on. That’s why the 26-year-old is fighting the Serbia-born Florida resident Kalajdzic. He wants to get his foot in the proverbial light heavyweight door and possibly stake a claim to a shot at the winner of the upcoming Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol 175 lb. title unification bout in October.

At 175, Morrell will also be once again sharing the same division with Benavidez, who is probably more likely to get first dibs at the Beterbiev-Bivol winner.

All of that means that, maybe, he gets kept out of the loop again as a high-risk, low reward proposition. At the very least, though, he’ll likely have a better shot at Beterbiev, Bivol, and a light heavyweight Benavidez than he ever would’ve had at landing a big ticket Canelo bout.

And, as for Canelo? The mega-talented Morrell has a parting shot for the Mexican cash cow, who recently announced his fight on September 14 against massive underdog Edgar Berlanga.

“Man, this fight’s bulls**t. Everybody knows. I don’t want any more questions about this fight…It’s crazy,” Morrell told Boxingscene.com.

“It’s a business…Canelo [left] two Cuban guys at 168 [himself and IBF mandatory contender William Scull], and before that Benavidez,” Morrell said. “Berlanga is easy for him. Before, he brought [junior middleweight champ Jermell] Charlo up to 168, too. Everything’s here. I’m not talking sh*t. Everything’s here. For me, this fight’s bulls**t.”