There was a part of David Morrell that wishes his homecoming headliner lasted a little longer.

Instead, he’ll just use his latest fight as grounds to seek a bigger opportunity.  

The precocious super middleweight needed just 143 seconds to dispose of previously unbeaten Mario Cazares in their WBA “World” title fight Sunday evening at The Armory in Morrell’s current hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota. A left hand from Morrell snapped back the head of Cazares (12-1, 5KOs), with a follow up left causing the challenger from Culiacan, Mexico to collapse the canvas in prompting an immediate stoppage.

“I didn’t expect that to end so quickly,” Morrell confessed during a post-fight interview after his PBC on Fox-televised main event. “I thought it would be more like a five or six round fight. However, once Cazares stepped in the ring, I noticed that he was not ready to fight on my level. He wasn’t ready for this kind of test or this level of fight.”

The win runs Morrell’s record to (5-0, 4KOs), coming two fights after having won the secondary version of the WBA super middleweight title following a 12-round unanimous decision over then-unbeaten Lennox Allen last August 8 in Los Angeles. Morrell—a Cuban southpaw who relocated to Minneapolis prior to turning pro in 2019—had only fought a combined five minutes in two pro fights prior to that point, but proved to be far more advanced than your average 22-year-old in their first year as a pro.

Morrell, now 23, has since added a third-round knockout of Mike Gavronski in a non-title fight last December and now the explosive first-round knockout of Cazares.

The win was the quickest for the unbeaten super middleweight since his pro debut, a 65-second blitzing of Yendris Rodriguez in this very venue in August 2019. Just as was the case on that night, Morrell was prepared for anything but ready to close the show at a moment’s notice.

“When I saw the opening, I took him out,” notes Morrell, who shines in his third consecutive Fox appearance. “When I hit him, I saw his legs wobble and I knew he was gone, completely out.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox