Notebook: Davis to face Hector Garcia before planned Ryan Garcia showdown
New foe for Teofimo; WBA orders Baumgarder-Choi for undisputed women's 130 title; Quick hits; Show and tell
A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.
On Thursday, Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia, two of boxing’s most exciting stars, announced they had come to terms and would meet in a long-awaited fight in Las Vegas in the spring.
Although they agreed to a deal for a 12-round nontitle bout at 136 pounds that will be a Showtime PPV fight, which sources told Fight Freaks Unite would take place on April 15, nothing is signed.
There are always potential issues over the paperwork but there other possible issues also, as in the matter of interim fights. Davis said he would first fight on Jan. 7 and Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) may also take a tune-up bout. Losses or injuries likely would derail their showdown.
But on Friday, Davis’ next fight was announced and it will be against Garcia — just not one named Ryan. Before that showdown, Davis will defend his WBA “regular” lightweight title against WBA junior lightweight titlist Hector Luis Garcia in the main event of a Showtime PPV card at Washington, D.C.’s Capital One Arena, the home venue for the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals.
Showtime and Premier Boxing Champions announced the bout in a brief release for the purposes of selling tickets, which go on sale on Tuesday. Davis also announced the bout on his Instagram page.
“I don’t know why nowadays champions don’t want to fight wit
Davis (27-0, 25 KOs), 28, of Baltimore, which is only about an hour from Washington, will defend his 135-pound belt for the fourth time. He wanted to fight ahead of a fight with Ryan Garcia because he has been out of the ring since scoring a spectacular sixth-round knockout of Rolando Romero on May 28 in Brooklyn, New York.
The Dominican Republic’s Hector Luis Garcia (16-0, 10 KOs), 31, a southpaw, who was a 2016 Olympian, had a breakout year in 2022.
In February, he took a fight with heavily favored Chris Colbert on short notice and scored a decisive 12-round unanimous decision that knocked Colbert from a mandatory title shot position. Instead, Garcia, who trains in Las Vegas, got the title shot and outpointed Roger Gutierrez on Aug. 20 to take his 130-pound title.
He has not fought since and will move up in weight to challenge Davis for his belt, once again as a heavy underdog. But it’s a fight he has wanted.
In August, he called out Davis, saying, “I wanted to keep aiming for the top and after beating Colbert and Gutierrez I want the biggest challenge out there, ‘Tank’ Davis. I don't care what weight we fight at. I will move up to 135 to fight for his title or we can meet at 130 and fight for my title and his title and make it an even bigger fight.”
A month after the fight, Davis faces another potential obstacle the fight with Ryan Garcia. Davis is to stand trial beginning Feb. 16 in Baltimore. He faces 14 charges related to an alleged hit-and-run accident in the early morning hours of Nov. 5, 2020 that injured four people. If convicted, Davis faces a maximum of 50 months in prison.
New Lopez opponent
Former unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez has a new opponent for his main event on Dec. 10 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Lopez will face Sandor Martin in the headliner of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+, 9 p.m. ET) in a 10-rounder that will be a WBC final junior welterweight title eliminator.
Lopez was scheduled to face former lightweight and junior lightweight titlist Jose Pedraza (29-4-1, 14 KOs), of Puerto Rico, in a 10-rounder. However, Pedraza has been sick all week with a non-Covid-19 illness and was forced to withdraw, according to Top Rank.
At the recent WBC convention, the sanctioning body ordered Lopez-Martin as an eliminator and with Pedraza now sidelined they quickly made a deal for the new fight.
After losing the unified lightweight title by major upset split decision in a slugfest with George Kambosos Jr. last November, Brooklyn, New York, native Lopez (17-1, 13 KOs), 25, made his junior welterweight debut on Aug. 13 in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas and knocked out Pedro Campa in the seventh round.
Former European junior welterweight champion Martin (40-2, 13 KOs), 29, a southpaw from Spain, scored the biggest win of his career 13 months ago when he traveled to Fresno, California, and won a majority 10-round decision over former four-division world titleholder Mikey Garcia at 144 pounds and sent Garcia into retirement. Martin has fought once since, a lopsided 10-round decision over Jose Felix in April in Martin’s hometown of Barcelona.
Baumgardner-Choi for undisputed title?
The WBA has ordered its women’s junior lightweight titleholder Hyun Mi Choi to face Alicya Baumgardner, the WBC/IBF/WBO champion, for the undisputed title in a rare move.
The WBA said that it wants to see an undisputed champion and placed Baumgardner in its mandatory position. Organizations rarely rank titleholders from other organizations, although it has happened occasionally.
The WBA gave the sides 30 days to negotiate a deal or it will order a purse bid. One hang-up that would seem likely is that if it does go to a purse bid it would be surprising if the 50-50 split set by the WBA would be acceptable to Baumgardner, the more notable fighter with three sanctioning organization titles and The Ring magazine championship.
Baumgardner (13-1, 7 KOs), 28, of Detroit, won a narrow split decision over Mikaela Mayer to retain the WBC title and take the IBF and WBO 130-pound belts in a high-profile unification fight on Oct. 15 in London.
Choi (20-0-1, 5 KOs), 32, of South Korea, who has fought all of her bouts in her home country except for a defense in Florida in 2020, is coming off a successful ninth defense via unanimous decision over Vanessa Bradford on Oct 19.
BetUS Boxing Show
If you missed the BetUS Boxing Show live at 1 p.m. ET on Friday on YouTube, please check out the replay (and also subscribe to the YouTube channel). We previewed and picked a pair of Saturday bouts — the Jaime Munguia-Gonzalo Coria middleweight fight that takes place in Mexico and the Liam Davies-Ionut Baluta European junior featherweight title bout in England. We also discussed news of the week and took viewer questions and comments. Please check out the show here:
Quick hits
Weights from Guadalajara, Mexico for Saturday’s Zanfer Promotions/Golden Boy card on DAZN (7 p.m. ET): Jaime Munguia 159.8 pounds, Gonzalo Coria 159.4; Argi Cortes 114.6, Erick Lopez 114.6; Diego Torres 138.9, Hector Morales 138.9; Benito Sanchez 130, Jose Garcia 122.8.
TGB Promotions was the only bidder at Tuesday’s purse bid for the vacant IBF junior welterweight title bout between Jeremias Ponce (30-0, 20 KOs), 26, of Argentina, and Subriel Matias (18-1, 18 KOs), 30, of Puerto Rico, winning promotional rights for $510,000. It’s a 50-50 split. TGB has 90 days to put on the fight, which likely will land on a PBC card on Showtime in early 2023. The title became vacant when Josh Taylor relinquished it in order to pursue a rematch with Jack Catterall rather than face mandatory challenger Ponce.
Former UFC fighter Vitor Belfort has come down with Covid-19 and withdrew this week from his four-round heavyweight boxing match with Hasim Rahman Jr. (12-1, 6 KOs), 31, of Las Vegas, scheduled for the Misfits card on Saturday (DAZN, 8 p.m. ET) at the Moody Center in Texas. Rahman will instead face former UFC fighter and NFL defensive end Greg Hardy (1-0, 1 KO), 34, a Clarksdale, Mississippi. “I’m excited, man. This is my chance to show that I belong in the boxing world,” Hardy said. “I know plenty about the Rahman name as boxers, and I know he was preparing for Vitor, but I’m definitely confident and prepared to show people I can box.”
Juan Francisco Estrada (43-3, 28 KOs), 32, of Mexico, and Nicaragua’s Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (51-3, 41 KOs), 35, the legendary four-division champion and former pound-for-pound king, were on target to make weight for their rubber match for Estrada’s lineal junior bantamweight title and the vacant WBC belt when they meet on Dec. 3 (DAZN) at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. At their WBC-mandated 14-day weight check, Estrada was 121.2 pounds and Gonzalez was 120.6, both within the limits to make 115 pounds at the official weigh-in.
Junior middleweight Fernando Vargas Jr. (6-0, 6 KOs), 26, a southpaw from Las Vegas and the son of former two-time junior middleweight titlist Fernando Vargas Sr., will face Alejandro Martinez (3-2-1, 2 KOs), 28, of Montebello, California, in a six-rounder that will be the opening bout of the pay-per-view headlined by the vacant WBC junior welterweight title fight between Jose Zepeda and Regis Prograis on Nov. 26 (9 p.m. ET) at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, Legendz Entertainment announced.
The Queensberry Promotions card headlined by the vacant European junior featherweight title bout between Liam Davies (12-0, 5 KOs), 26, of England, and Ionut Baluta (15-3, 3 KOs), 28, of Romania, which will take place Saturday at Telford International Centre in Davis’ hometown of Telford, England, will stream live on ESPN+ (2 p.m. ET) in the United States after Top Rank acquired the rights. In the 10-round co-feature, light heavyweight contender Anthony Yarde (22-2, 21 KOs), 31, of England, will face Stefani Koykov (14-1, 12 KOs), 30, of Bulgaria, in what is supposed to be a tune-up for Yarde before a mandatory challenge against unified world champion Artur Beterbiev in early 2023. Weights: Davies 120.7 pounds, Baluta 121.4; Yarde 179.2, Koykov 176.6.
Oscar Rivas’ long-delayed first WBC bridgerweight title defense has been rescheduled after several issues forced it to be repeatedly postponed from dates in from August to November. Now, instead of a homecoming fight in his native Colombia, the Montreal-based Rivas (28-1, 19 KOs), 35, will be on the road to defend against Luckaz Rozanski (14-0, 13 KOs), 36, on Feb. 25 in Rozanski’s hometown of Rzeszow, Poland, according to the WBC. Rivas won the inaugural title in 224-pound division the WBC created between cruiserweight and heavyweight when he outpointed Ryan Rozicki in an action-packed fight in October 2021 in Montreal.
Former junior middleweight titlist Austin Trout (35-5-1, 18 KOs), 37, a southpaw from Las Cruces, New Mexico, is moving away from boxing after signing a multi-fight deal with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, the company announced. As a boxer, Trout has won four fights in a row since a decision loss to Jermell Charlo in a world title bout followed by a draw with Terrell Gausha in 2019. “I’ve been following BKFC for a long-time and the excitement level at their events is truly over the top,” Trout said. “(BKFC president) Dave (Feldman) and his team have been outstanding to deal with and I’m thrilled to challenge myself in bare-knuckle fighting and start my next chapter with the hottest promotional company in combat sports.”
Promoter Lou DiBella announced that he has signed IBF women’s junior featherweight titlist Cherneka Johnson (15-1, 6 KOs), 27, a New Zealand native fighting out of Melbourne, Australia. She won the title April 20 by majority decision over Melissa Esquivel in Melbourne and made her first defense by decision over Susie Ramadan on Oct. 16, also in Melbourne on the Devin Haney-George Kambosos Jr. II undercard. “I want to continue to fight around the globe and build my brand within the boxing world,” Johnson said. “I am determined to defend my IBF world title and my goal is to unify the belts. I know that with DiBella Entertainment these opportunities will come my way and I promise to make the most of them.”
Super middleweight champion Christian Mbilli (22-0, 20 KOs), 27, of France, will face journeyman Vaughn Alexander (17-6-1, 10 KOs), 36, of St. Louis, on Dec. 17 (ESPN+) in the main event at the Parc des Expositions de la Beaujoire in Nantes, France, Eye of the Tiger announced. “We’re getting closer and closer to a world championship fight so it's very motivating,” Mbilli said. “Alexander is a quality opponent who is not to be taken lightly. I know that I have no room for mistakes.”
Show and tell
When Hall of Fame former welterweight champions Felix Trinidad and the late Pernell Whitaker finally met in 1999, Whitaker, the former pound-for-pound king, was at the end of his brilliant career and took a one-sided decision loss to Trinidad, who retained his title. Whitaker would fight just once more while Trinidad would go on to claim some of his biggest victories. But what would a Whitaker-Trinidad fight have looked like four years earlier? That’s when Main Events, Whitaker’s longtime promoter, won a purse bid for a Trinidad mandatory defense and brought him to HBO for a doubleheader on which both legends faced separate opponents in title defenses in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Whitaker knocked out Jake Rodriguez in the sixth round in the headliner and Trinidad easily handled Larry Barnes via fourth-round knockout in the co-feature. Unfortunately, Main Events and Trinidad promoter Don King could not make a deal for the unification showdown both fighters wanted and when the fight finally took place years later Whitaker was a shell of his once-great self. But the doubleheader they co-starred on and scored knockouts took place on Nov. 18, 1995 — 27 years ago on Friday. Here is a beautiful site poster signed by Whitaker and Trinidad in my collection.
Lopez photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Baumgardner photo: Top Rank; Munguia-Coria photo: Zanfer Promotions
Please upgrade your subscription here: https://danrafael.substack.com/subscribe
Thank you so much for your support of Fight Freaks Unite!
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danrafael1/
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanRafael1
Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanRafaelBoxing
