In a fight card that is definitely not a ShoBox, David Benavidez gets his first crack at a world title against Ronald Gavril Friday, September 8th on Showtime. This is a PBC Showtime Boxing: SPECIAL EDITION card, not a ShoBox, okay? It is a tripleheader and features two other ShoBox level fights on ShoBox’s normal night and time, but that is a coincidence. Okay? Do you believe me?
All joking about PBC being too good for ShoBox branding aside, this card is pretty poor. 20 year old David Benavidez (18-0, 17 KOs) is absolutely an elite prospect. Last time out he absolutely demolished contender Rogelio “Porky” Medina. Ronald Gavril (18-1, 14 KOs) is not. His best win so far has been against Christopher Brooker, which is to say he doesn’t really have any good wins. In 2015, he lost to Elvin Alaya. That is not good. Originally this was supposed to be Anthony Dirrell, but he opted out somewhat unsurprisingly. I’d look for a different route to a title too. This fight is basically handing Benavidez a title.
The other two fights on the card also feature super middleweights. J’Leon Love (23-1, 13 KOs) will compete against Abraham Han (26-3, 16 KOs) and unbeaten prospect Caleb Plant (15-0, 10 KOs) will fight Alan Campa (16-3, 11 KOs), both over 10 rounds. A PBC ShoBox, like I said.
