- David Morrell v Zak Chelli at a catchweight is the chief support to Wardley-Dubois on Saturday at Co-op Live, Manchester.
- Morrell, 12-1 with the loss being a competitive split-decision against David Benavidez, makes his UK debut. Chelli, 16-3-1, fights in the most-hostile-friendly venue of his career.
- Luke says Morrell is levels above on craft and athleticism — but Chelli's home support and granite chin makes a stoppage less certain than the bookies' line suggests. Morrell wide on the cards is the call.
Right Then — Best Co-Feature Of 2026 So Far
Right then. Let's not beat around the bush — the David Morrell v Zak Chelli co-feature on Saturday's Wardley-Dubois bill is one of the better undercard fights any British promoter has put together in 2026. It's a Cuban orthodox box-puncher in Morrell, and he's a problem at every level above 168lbs. It's a Birmingham-born British operator in Chelli, who's been calling for a top-five level test for two years. And it's a catchweight contracted between super middle and light heavy that suits Morrell better than it suits Chelli — which is how this fight got made in the first place.
Make no mistake, this is not a soft co-feature thrown on a card to fill a slot. This is a properly-matched fight where both men have a real reason to be in the building. Morrell wants the loud UK debut that announces him to a different audience and tees up a Benavidez rematch later in the year. Chelli wants the career-best win that vaults him into world-title contention before he turns 30. The collision suits both careers.
Why Morrell At A Catchweight
The catchweight conversation has been the under-the-radar story of fight week. Morrell's natural division is super middleweight at 168, and he's hovered around that mark his entire career. He went up to challenge Benavidez at 175 in his last fight and lost a competitive split decision — a fight he's adamant he'll re-run. Coming back down to 168 against Chelli would have been the obvious play, but Chelli's been campaigning at 175 lately, so a halfway-house catchweight got penned in. That favours Morrell. He's the smaller man at 175 and the bigger man at 168 — meeting in the middle just lets him bring his super-middle power up rather than having his light-heavy disadvantages exposed.
From Chelli's side, agreeing to the catchweight is the price of admission. He doesn't get the fight without it. That's just the modern reality — when you're trying to land a Cuban world-class operator on a UK card, the contract has to make sense for the bigger name. Zak's team did well to get the fight signed at all.
The Chelli Path
Make no mistake, Chelli can win this. He absolutely can. He's faster than people give him credit for, his right hand has finishing pop, and his chin has held up in every fight where it's been tested. He took Lerrone Richards to a draw in the British title fight back in 2022 when most thought he'd be outclassed. He stopped Mark Heffron in 2023 in the kind of war that Morrell, with all his Cuban schooling, has never quite been in.
Saturday is a Hatton-Mayweather problem for Chelli, and Hatton is the right comparison. Like Ricky in 2007, Zak gets a top operator at a catchweight in a venue full of his own fans. The variables that matter are: can he land clean enough early to make Morrell respect him, and can he rough him up on the inside to take some of the textbook craft off Morrell's punches? If yes to both, this is a 12-round war and Chelli could nick the cards. If no to either, Morrell pulls away after round six.
The Morrell Path
For Morrell, this is a showcase. He's the bigger name, the bigger ring IQ, the bigger boxing pedigree — Cuban amateur background, World Boxing Series, the lot. He's faster than Chelli, more accurate, and his straight punching off either hand is a level the British boxer hasn't faced before. If David comes out and boxes properly behind a long jab and lateral movement, this is a comfortable points-and-late-stoppage night.
The danger for Morrell is what it always is when a brilliant boxer comes to the UK to face a British home favourite — getting drawn into a fight he doesn't need to have. The Co-op Live crowd is going to be loud and partisan, and if Chelli lands a couple of clean shots in round 3, that crowd will roar him on. Morrell has to ignore the noise and box. Easy to say from a keyboard, harder to do at fight time.
What This Tells You About 2026 Super Middle
The 168/175 picture across 2026 is mad busy. Benavidez has just blasted out Zurdo Ramirez at cruiserweight in May. Canelo is talking about a Crawford rematch in September. Hamzah Sheeraz is on the Usyk-Verhoeven undercard for the WBO super-middle belt later this month. Wherever you slot Morrell after Saturday, he's properly in the conversation — a clean win against Chelli tees him up against the Sheeraz-Begic winner, against a returning Canelo, or for the Benavidez rematch he's been chasing since their first fight.
For Chelli, the upside is simpler. Beat Morrell and Zak is an immediate top-10 super-middle, signed to whichever big promoter wants him most. Lose competitively and he's still in a better seat than he was a week ago — the British public will know who he is properly for the first time.
Luke's Call — Morrell Wide
I never sit on the fence. Morrell on the cards, somewhere between 117-111 and 119-109. The catchweight is too kind to him for Chelli to win on the cards, and the home crowd noise will not help Zak turn the close rounds his way against a fighter who's busier and more accurate.
I'm not expecting a stoppage. Morrell's power isn't quite at the level where you can confidently pick him to ice a ranked British operator with a chin. Chelli has been stopped only once in his career, and that was on cuts, not on shots. Saturday is twelve rounds, full distance, with Morrell winning every category and getting his hand raised. If you're betting, it's a points line, not a stoppage line.
If you know, you know — this is the kind of co-feature that announces a Cuban to a British audience and gives a domestic fighter the rounds with a top-15 pound-for-pound talent that recalibrates the rest of his career. Brilliant fight. Co-op Live, Saturday, before the main event. Don't miss the walk-up.