LAS VEGAS — David Morrell Jr. wasn’t in the right frame of mind when the opening bell rang for his last fight at T-Mobile Arena.
The brutal beating his previous opponent, Aidos Yerbossynuly, took sent him into a medically induced coma. Surgery to remove pressure from the Kazakhstan native’s brain helped him recover and, rather miraculously, enabled him to walk out of a Minneapolis hospital about a month after their frightening fight at The Armory in November 2022.
Five and a half months passed by the time Morrell stepped into the ring at T-Mobile for his subsequent bout to battle Brazil’s Yamaguchi Falcao on the pay-per-view portion of the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia undercard in April 2023. A remorseful Morrell, who will return to T-Mobile Arena for the biggest fight of his career against David Benavidez on Saturday night (8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT; $79.95 PPV), still couldn’t get the thought of what happened to Yerbossynuly out of his head.
“That moment was really, really hard for me because I didn’t know what would happen to him,” Morrell told Uncrowned. “He was in the hospital, in a coma, for three weeks. It was really hard. The psychological scars I felt, the lack of sleep and the worry that I had for [Yerbossynuly], it lasted up until that [Falcao] fight, which was months later.”
Morrell admits he was tentative to let loose on Falcao, a huge underdog who took that dangerous assignment on less than two weeks’ notice once Morrell’s original opponent, Ghana’s Sena Agbeko, was denied a license by the Nevada State Athletic Commission because of an abnormality detected on his MRI. As soon as Morrell’s left-right combination made Falcao take an awkward step just after the midway mark of the first round, Morrell demonstratively pointed it out to referee Celestino Ruiz.
The last thing the compassionate Cuban wanted was for Falcao to suffer damage similar to what Yerbossynuly endured.
Morrell nevertheless had an inhumane assignment to complete. His vicious right hook knocked Falcao to the canvas face first and out in the first round.
Falcao was taken to a local hospital as well, but he was released soon thereafter. That put Morrell’s mind at ease, temporarily at least.
“For a little bit of the time, I saw that he didn’t look good,” Morrell said of Falcao. “So, I said to the referee, ‘Hey!’ In my mind, I had Yerbossynuly. That’s when my corner said, ‘Hey! Don’t stop!’ The referee didn’t say nothing, so I said, ‘OK.’ And after the knockout of Falcao, Falcao went to the hospital too. So, for a little bit of time I said, ‘Damn.’”
The talented southpaw still wonders why the bout between him and Yerbossynuly, then 30, lasted nearly as long as it did.
Referee Tony Weeks drew criticism, as did ringside physicians for the Minnesota Office of Combat Sports, for not stopping the action before Morrell was declared the winner by technical knockout with only 26 seconds to go before the final bell. Morrell knocked Yerbossynuly to the canvas twice during the 12th round, when Yerbossynuly also had a point deducted by Weeks for holding.
Morrell, along with virtually everyone else either inside The Armory or who watched on Showtime, were certain nine rough rounds were more than enough for Yerbossynuly. The unknown contender entered the ring unbeaten (16-0), but Morrell’s combination of speed, power and athleticism left him hopelessly behind on the scorecards in what devolved into an egregiously prolonged pummeling.
“There were times I couldn’t sleep through the night,” Morrell recalled. “Everybody told me, ‘It’s not your fault.’ But in the ninth round, I saw the coach in his corner needed to stop the fight. I saw that he couldn’t do more.”
Morrell couldn’t bring himself to visit Yerbossynuly in the hospital.
Promoter Tom Brown spent an additional week by Yerbossynuly’s side before he flew home to California. Brown — whose company, TGB Promotions, handles all cards arranged by Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions — is still astounded that the courageous contender left the hospital on his own two feet.
“I was there for a week after the fight, at the hospital every day,” Brown told Uncrowned. “But it was Al Haymon that stepped up to the plate and made sure the kid had everything he needed. He flew his wife into the United States, to Minneapolis. And Al had one of his guys go and sit there the whole time he was in the hospital with him.
“He took care of the kid’s team and all the needs at the hospital and anything the family needed. That’s what Al does. You know, he made sure [Yerbossynuly] had everything he needed. It’s like you see with some of these stories out there about Prichard Colon.”
The notoriously private Haymon has not spoken publicly about assisting Yerbossynuly or Colon.
Haymon assisted Colon’s family with the exorbitant costs of long-term care since he suffered a brain hemorrhage during a ninth-round disqualification defeat to Terrel Williams on a PBC card in October 2015 in Fairfax, Virginia. Colon spent 221 days in a coma, though he has recovered to the point that he receives round-the-clock care at his home in Florida and speaks through the use of a computer.
A mindful Morrell has Yerbossynuly and his family in the back of his mind, even as the 26-year-old pugilist prepares for this intriguing showdown with the slightly favored Benavidez. The stakes are high, as the winner between Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) and Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) will become the WBC’s mandatory challenger for the light heavyweight championship rematch in which Russian knockout artist Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) will battle Kyrgyzstan’s Dmitry Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) on Feb. 22 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“It’s boxing, but it’s life,” Morrell said as he wiped tears from his eyes. “Guys have families, kids. And I think, ‘OK, now I’m the winner.’ But maybe I’ll lose, and then I could come out [of the ring] and go to the hospital. Then I think of my mom, my dad. I have a son now, and my wife, too. It’s crazy. When I think of this, my mind is working.”
