Imam Khataev’s manager, Jim Kambosos, revealed the ring size will be 18 ft. for his fight against David Morrell next month in their 10-round light heavyweight bout on July 12th at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York.
Khataev-Morrell: 18ft Ring Confirmed
Jim is glad the ring will be 18 feet rather than the standard 20 feet, because it won’t allow fighters on the card to “run.” It’s unclear how this will help the unbeaten 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Khataev (10-0, 9 KOs) for this fight. The highly-ranked 175-lb contender Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs) isn’t a runner, and he won’t be hard to find. He’s going to stand and fight Khataev.
Morrell vs. Khataev is part of Turki Alalshikh’s July 12th event on DAZN PPV. The card is headlined by Edgar Berlanga vs. Hamzah Sheeraz.
18ft Ring Impacts Stevenson, Zepeda
The reduced 18-ft ringsize for this card will mainly affect Shakur Stevenson, who is defending his WBC lightweight title against the volume-puncher William Zepeda in the co-feature.
Stevenson is expected to move a lot in that fight. But with the ring being smaller, he won’t have as much real estate to evade Zepeda. Turki said this week that he won’t support runners on his Riyadh Season cards. He wants fighters who bring action. Again, that directive affects Shakur, and not Morrell, who is a big puncher and known for brawling.
“I’m going to tell you one thing right now. I look after Imam Khataev. And I just signed off Imam Khataev’s promotional agreement,” said manager Jim Kambosos to Fighthype, talking about his fighter, Imam Khataev, who takes on David Morrell on July 12th.
The Russian Khataev has a lot of power and is a classic pressure fighter. His amateur credentials speak for themselves. He fought at the highest levels. As a pro, his style is more suited for this type of fighting because he’s able to wear down his opposition with his pressure. Morrell is going to have to fight a lot better against him than he did in his loss to David Benavidez last February for him to win.
“I’m going to tell you one thing that’s changed, and this is not me breaking any confidentiality or privacy agreements in the contract,” said Kambosos. “But I agree with His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh] because that ring has been reduced to 18 ft. It ain’t a 20 ft. ring.”
Morrell’s Style in Smaller Ring
Jim shouldn’t assume that the ring being smaller will help Khataev in this fight, because he’s not fighting a novice. The Cuban Morrell can do everything that Ben Whittaker did when he beat Khataev in the Olympics, but he’s also a big puncher. If Morrell fights aggressively like he did in the past, it’s going to be tough on Khataev to hold up without the fight getting stopped on cuts or eye swelling.
“Because guess what? We want to see fighters fight. And I’m really happy that the ring for July 12th is an 18 x 18 ring, internal, inside the ropes. That’s going to make guys fight, not want to run, and use basically every inch of the ring. We’re down to an 18-foot ring now. I’m really happy about that because my guy [Imam Khataev] is a pressure guy,” said Kambosos.
Last Updated on 06/13/2025
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