David Morrell Jr. was sitting on a couch inside the large training center for Circle of Discipline boxers in Barnum, Minn. It was a light workout day in the run-up to Morrell's fight with Mario Cazares that takes place Sunday night at the Minneapolis Armory.
Morrell was known by his first name, Osvary, as an amateur boxer out of Cuba. This led to the nickname "O" among fellow Circle fighters such as such as Jamal James and their trainers, Sankara Frazier and his son Adonis.
Now 23, Morrell had 137 amateur fights and won 135, all before he defected from Cuba in the middle of 2018. This will be Morrell's fifth pro fight, a defense of the WBA interim world super middleweight that he won in his third.
That title fight was a 12-round unanimous decision over veteran Lennox Allen in August 2020. Morrell's other three pro fights were early knockouts.
Morrell was asked if he has a fighting style that's more suited for the pros than as an amateur. Through an interpreter, he said:
"I enjoy both. They have given me different experiences. This is my career now, so I'm adopting the pro style and training for longer fights."
Morrell's ability to adjust quickly in both areas has been close to dumbfounding for Joe Goossen, the analyst for Sunday's Premier Boxing Champions card that will be shown on Fox.
"He's not a hit-and-run amateur," Goossen said. "Even with some great fighters I've trained, it took a while to undo some amateur stuff in them — to teach them to sit on punches more, to fight on the inside as well as the outside.