Gervonta Davis vs. Frank Martin and David Benavidez vs. Oleksandr Gvozdyk doubleheader is planned for June 15th on Amazon Prime Video PPV.
Tank Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) will be coming off a 14-month layoff to defend his WBA secondary lightweight title against #2 Martin (18-0, 12 KOs) in the headliner.
Tank’s Tune-Up After a Long Layoff
Frank Martin didn’t look good in his last fight. He needed to rally to pull out a razor-thin 12-round decision against Artem Harutyunyan last July. Martin looked robotic and slow in the first seven rounds, getting easily outboxed.
In the second half of the fight, Harutyunyan gassed out, enabling Martin to come on and win a decision. The performance showed that Martin is not on the level of the talented contenders at 135, like Raymond Muratalla, Vasily Lomachenko, Andy Cruz, and Abdullah Mason.
Those are the guys that Tank Davis should be fighting but is choosing to steer clear of for obvious reasons. Martin is more along the same lines as the fighters that Tank has been facing throughout his career, another safe opponent.
In the chief support bout, former two-time WBC super middleweight champion Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) will battle former WBC light heavyweight champion Gvozdyk (20-1, 16 KOs).
Benavidez Targets 175-lb Undisputed
The Benavidez-Gvozdyk fight will set the winner up as the mandatory for the WBC 175-lb title, which is currently held by IBF/WBC/WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev.
This move by Benavidez is being done to insert himself in the equation to fight for the undisputed at 175 and get some of the Saudi dough that they’re throwing around.
If Benavidez becomes the WBC mandatory, he can potentially fight for the winner of the June 1st clash between WBA 175-lb champion Dmitry Bivol and Beterbiev. There’s a lot of money Benavidez can make fighting the winner of the if the Saudis are involved.
Will Fans Pay For These Matchups?
Benavidez’s dad, Jose Benavidez Sr., revealed that lightweight contender Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela will fight Edwin De Los Santos in a rematch on the card. Jose Sr. broke the news of the doubleheader on Millcity Boxing’s YouTube channel.
There’s no word yet on the price tag for the Davis-Martin and Benavidez-Gvozdyk card on Amazon Prime PPV, but it could be costly in the $90 range due to Gervonta and Benavidez being on the same card.
Unfortunately, that price could scare away casual boxing fans, leaving just the hardcore fans to determine whether this will. Pricing the card reasonably is important for PBC because they can’t charge premium amounts of money for two fights that fans didn’t ask for.