Call it a showcase. It definitely wasn’t a competitive fight.
David Morrell pounded Mike Gavronski at will until referee Jack Reiss ended the mismatch at 2:45 of the third round of a scheduled 10-round super middleweight fight Saturday in Los Angeles.
Morrell (4-0, 3 KOs) cut his teeth in the vaunted Cuban amateur system, giving him a pedigree that Gavronski (26-4-1, 16 KOs), a journeyman, couldn’t fathom.
The winner began landing hard, accurate punches almost from the opening bell and there wasn’t anything Gavronski could do about it. He tried to punch back, tried to move, tried to hold, eventually tried to just cover up to protect himself.
Nothing worked. Morrell was that much better.
Morrell landed punishing blows with such consistency that he might’ve been given a 10-8 score in the opening round without putting Gavronski down. However, with about 15 seconds remaining, a three-punch combination put the loser on his behind.
10-7?
The assault continued after that, as it seemed Morrell could’ve ended the fight at any time he wanted.
Finally, late in Round 3, he landed one more flurry of hard shots to the head that Gavronski probably had no idea was coming and Reiss said enough was enough by stopping the fight, such as it was.
Morrell weighed in at 170 pounds on Friday, two over the super middleweight limit. As a result, the fight was changed from a 12-rounder for a secondary world title to a 10-rounder.
Of course, that will not have slowed down Morrell, who is attacking professional boxing much as he went after Gavronski. He’s wasting no time. He has already won an “interim” title and probably is within a few fights of a legitimate world title fight.
In an interview with Boxing Junkie, he wouldn’t say when that might happen. He said only that he’ll be ready when it does. No one who watched his fight on Saturday will argue with him on that point.
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