By Dan Ambrose: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Ryan Garcia undercard had three fights today for their April 22nd event on Showtime PPV. With some boxing fans bitterly complaining about the $84.99 price tag on pay-per-view, it’s in the best interest of the event organizers to beef up the card so that fans won’t turn to piracy to watch it on a stick or illegal stream.
Ideally, another fight or two will be added to the card to entice boxing fans to purchase the card on pay-per-view. Davis-Garcia card will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The undercard fights added today are as follows:
- David Morrell Jr vs. Sena Agbeko in a 12-round co-feature: WBA super middleweight champion Morrell (8-0, 7 KOs) will defend his title against Agbeko (27-2, 21 KOs). This has mismatch written all over it, unfortunately. Agbeko has fought only one notable opponent in his career Vladimir Shishkin and was blitzed in a one-sided fashion. Morrell is the talented fighter on the undercard, but it’s too bad he’s not matched against someone good like Caleb Plant, Diego Pacheco or Demetrius Andrade instead of Agbeko in a showcase fight.
- Gabriel Rosado and Bektemir Melikuziev in a 10-round rematch at super middleweight. Rosado (26-16-1, 15 KOs) stopped Bektemir (11-1, 9 KOs) in the third round in an upset two years ago in 2021. Since then, Rosado has lost his last three fights, while Bektemir has won his last three, albeit against weak opposition. Given the pedestrian level of opposition for Bekteemir, it’s difficult to know if he’s improved in the last two years since his loss to the 37-year-old Rosado. Recently, Rosado had a fight fall through against Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez when the former WBO super middleweight champion came in overweight. With the way Rosado has looked recently, the chances are high that Bek ‘The Bully’ will avenge his loss. That’s not to say that Bektemir is a world-beater, as he’s clearly not cut out for the upper tier at 168 or 175. He’s too one-dimensional to cut the mustard against killers at super middleweight or at light heavyweight.
- Elijah Garcia vs. Kevin Salgado in a 10-round middleweight bout is the first fight of the PPV portion of the card. The 19-year-old middleweight southpaw Garcia (14-0, 12 KOs) has been destroying his opposition with ease thus far in his three-year professional career. Salgado (15-1-1, 10 KOs) should be a good test for Garcia to see if he’s ready to progress to the next level.
Undefeated Morrell will be getting in a last fight before he defends against David Benavidez. The talented Cuban Morrell must look good because he will have his hands full against Benavidez later this year.
The 31-year-old Agbeko is ranked #9 WBA and has recent wins over Isaiah Steen, Winfred Harris Jr, Apollo Thompson, and Daniel Mendez. In February 2021, Agbeko stepped it up a level and was beaten by Vladimir Shishkin by a one-sided 10-round unanimous decision. Since then, Agbeko has won his last four fights.
“On April 22, I’m going to dispatch my opponent sensationally,” said Morrell. “And after this fight, I want the ‘Mexican Monster’ David Benavidez, but first, I have to get past a formidable and competent opponent in Agbeko.
“I intend to take care of my business on April 22 and then look forward to taking on David Benavidez in a fight that the fans want to see,” said Morrell.
“He said, ‘What are you doing to do when I check hook you to the face and to the body?’ He’s already telling me what they’re planning on,” said Tank Davis to Showtime Sports about what Ryan Garcia told him. “As long as he gets knocked out, I don’t care.”
