Friday night on Showtime we get a “Showtime Boxing: Special Edition” featuring super prospect David Benavidez fighting both for a vacant super middleweight belt and divisional history against fringe contender Ronald Gavril. Caleb Plant and J’Leon will also be in action against separate opponents to round out the undercard. This isn’t a great show, but tune in to watch Benavidez anyway.
David Benavidez (18-0, 17 KOs) is without question one of the best prospects in all the sport. At age 20 he is already a whirlwind of violence and destruction. In May he stepped up big time against recent title challenger Rogelio “Porky” Medina, a man who many thought may have deserved a decision over consensus top three super middleweight James Degale only a year before. Benavidez destroyed Porky in almost terrifying fashion, as if Medina was just another one of those names on his ledger on the way up. The last few rounds that night were just savage.
In his first title fight here, Benavidez will be in against 31 year old Romanian Ronald Gavril (18-1, 14 KOs) to battle for the belt vacated by Badou Jack when he moved to light heavyweight. Gavril is a fine fighter that just sneaks into my top 25 for the division, but he is going to get steam rolled here. He just isn’t dynamic enough to deal with the size, power, and aggression of David Benavidez. It really is that simple. Benavidez is special and Gavril is normal. Ideally we would have a better opponent here, but it really isn’t a surprise that we don’t.
With the expected win Friday night, Benavidez would become the both the youngest world titleholder in boxing today and in the history of the super middleweight division. The current record holder is Darrin Van Horn who was 22 when he won a belt in 1991.
Two other super middleweight fights round out this card. In the co-feature, PBC prospect Caleb “Sweet Hands” Plant (15-0, 10 KOs) will meet Alan Campa (16-3, 11 KOs) while J’Leon Love (23-1, 13 KOs) fights Abraham Han (26-3, 13 KOs) in the opener.
Plant is a solid prospect, but he has been sort of tedious to watch at times. Despite some flashy shots peppered into his fights that show plus athleticism, Sweet Hands’ fights have pretty consistently turned into this sort of same old rhythm each time out. Campa is no threat to him, but he can act as a barometer of sorts. He has been stopped in four and five by Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Jesse Hart respectively. We will see how Caleb does comparatively.
J’Leon Love was hyped as an early Mayweather Promotions prospect, but he ran into the very same Porky Medina on ShoBox that Benavidez obliterated last year. That night Medina triumphed, however, putting Love out in three with Floyd Mayweather watching at ringside. They have slowly been rebuilding Love since and this is a return to the spotlight for the once major prospect. Han is a decent fighter with an okay ledger, but Love should have significant athletic advantages here.
In truth this card is a glorified ShoBox. There is nothing wrong with that, but go into it with those expectations rather than expecting a typical Showtime Championship Boxing card. If this wasn’t a PBC card, it would probably be labeled as such. Regardless, the show begins at 10 PM Eastern on Friday on Showtime. You know, the ShoBox slot.
