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Not much speculation is required here thanks to Smith's promoter's big mouth. Hearn said openly that they couldn't get the right "number" for a Benavidez fight, i.e. they priced themselves out. The rationale being they were in "position" with the WBO by virtue of Smith's "interim" status.
It's not often I support sanctioning body actions, but the WBO seem to have looked at this situation and thought "we didn't hand you this interim belt so you could sit around and force us to strip the Bivol - Beterbiev winner" and ordered him to fight Morrell who just beat a ranked (by the WBO) contender.
Morrell is the definition of a high risk low reward fighter so it will be interesting to see if Smith vacates. No Benavidez fight and the possibility of no email belt: that's poor strategising from Team Smith, right?
It's not often I support sanctioning body actions, but the WBO seem to have looked at this situation and thought "we didn't hand you this interim belt so you could sit around and force us to strip the Bivol - Beterbiev winner" and ordered him to fight Morrell who just beat a ranked (by the WBO) contender.
Morrell is the definition of a high risk low reward fighter so it will be interesting to see if Smith vacates. No Benavidez fight and the possibility of no email belt: that's poor strategising from Team Smith, right?