Gervonta 'Tank' Davis set for return vs. Frank Martin on June 15
David Benavidez fights Oleksandr Gvozdyk in 175-pound co-feature
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Gervonta “Tank” Davis, one of boxing’s biggest stars, will end a 14-month layoff and defend the WBA lightweight title against unbeaten contender Frank Martin on June 15 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the fighters and Premier Boxing Champions announced via social media.
The fight, long expected, will headline a PBC on Prime Video card (Prime Video PPV and PPV.com) and also include David Benavidez’s move up from super middleweight to fight Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the vacant WBC interim light heavyweight belt in the co-feature.
The timing of the announcement was odd in that Davis posted to his social media on Saturday night during the pay-per-view card headlined by Ryan Garcia’s major upset of Devin Haney.
Davis announced the fight before he was scheduled to, sources involved in the event told Fight Freaks Unite. “Tank went rogue,” one source said.
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Davis has not fought since knocking out Garcia with a seventh-round body shot in their 136-pound nontitle fight last April at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in a blockbuster Showtime PPV card that generated around 1.2 million buys and then serving 44 days in jail in his hometown of Baltimore as part of a conviction in a 2020 hit-and-run case.
Davis (29-0, 27 KOs), a 29-year-old southpaw, will make his fifth title defense and headline his seventh consecutive pay-per-view event.
Indianapolis southpaw Martin (18-0, 12 KOs), 29, who shares trainer Derrick James with Garcia, will be in his first world title fight and boxing for the first time in 11 months, since he eked out a decision over Artem Harutyunyan in July. Martin punctuated the win with a 12th-round knockdown.
Martin had the opportunity to fight Shakur Stevenson for the vacant WBC lightweight title this past Nov. 16 and his side agreed to the deal with Top Rank before Martin pulled out in a financial dispute with his own team over his purse.
Benavidez-Gvozdyk has also long been expected. Benavidez, the clear No. 1 super middleweight contender and the WBC interim titlist, hoped to land a May 4 fight with undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez.
However, Alvarez has shown no interest in facing Benavidez and the WBC has so far declined to order the mandatory bout. So with Alvarez signing to fight Jaime Munguia next month, Benavidez and his team made plans for him to rise to 175 pounds to face former WBC and lineal champion Gvozdyk, who is part of Alvarez’s camp.
Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs), 27, of Phoenix, who is a two-time WBC super middleweight titlist but lost the belt each time due to missing weight and a positive drug test for cocaine, has headlined per-view cards in his previous two fights.
In November, he topped the final Showtime PPV event with a one-sided sixth-round knockout of unbeaten former middleweight and junior middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade. In March 2023, he beat down former super middleweight titlist Caleb Plant over the second half of the fight in a unanimous decision.
Gvozdyk (20-1, 16 KOs), 37, a Ukraine native fighting out of Oxnard, California, has won three fights in a row since he was stopped in the 10th round of a unification fight with Artur Beterbiev in 2019. After the loss, Gvozdyk retired for 3½ years. His most recent two bouts took place on Alvarez undercards.
On the weekend recap podcast we did a deep dive into all things Haney-Garcia. You don’t want to miss it. We also discussed the undercard, news of the week and recalled the anniversaries of three important fights. Give it a listen, a review, and also subscribe to get an alert when the next episode is available. New shows every Thursday and Sunday night.
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Davis photo: Ryan Hafey
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The PPV numbers for Benavidez/Andrade are buried next to Jimmy Hoffa. But being relegated to the undercard says it all, regardless. I’m sorry, Co-Main lol. An uninspiring opponent, finger pointing, excuses, clout chasing. Rinse, Repeat smh.