Gervonta Davis just showed why he might be the king of the ring, putting down Frank Martin with a wicked left hook that echoed through the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The knockout came sharp at 1:29 of the eighth round during their WBA Lightweight World Title fight, adding another clip to Davis’s highlight reel in what was a milestone event for the arena—their 100th title fight.
Davis kept it short and sweet: “Thank you guys for coming out, great event. I appreciate everyone who made this possible. We did it once again. On to the next!”
Making his debut at 175, former WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) looked slow, sluggish, and weak, winning a wide 12-round unanimous decision over Oleksandr Gvozdyk (20-2, 16 KOs) to capture the WBC interim light heavyweight title. The scores were 116-112, 117-111 and 119-119-109.
Boxing News 24 scored it 114-114. It wasn’t a huge shock that the judges gave it to the A-side fighter Benavidez by wide scores, as he’s the one who is given the big push to be the next ‘Face of Boxing,’ and that put Gvozdyk in a situation where he needed to dominate to have a chance of winning.
It should have been a draw in reality, and Benavidez was fortunate tonight with the scoring because he was awful.
Benavidez gassed out completely by the midpoint of the fight, getting outworked from round seven on by the 37-year-old Gvozdyk. Early in the fight, Benavidez’s speed and combination punching allowed him to dominate the slow former WBC champion, but his power was never there at all.
By the sixth, Benavidez looked exhausted and was outboxed by Gvozdyk from that point on. With the win, Benavidez is now the WBC mandatory for champion Artur Beterbiev’s title and will face the winner of his undisputed clash against Dmitry Bivol.
In an upset, former WBA champion Alberto Puello (23-0, 10 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Gary Antuanne Russell (17-1, 17 KOs) by a 12-round split decision to capture the WBC interim 140-lb strap. The judges scored it 118-109 for Russell, and 115-112, 114-113 for Puello.
Russell looked slow-footed and stationary, allowing Puello to outbox him with combinations and movement.
WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KOs) outpunched Terrell Gausha (24-4-1, 12 KOs), winning a 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 119-109, 118-110 and 118-110.
Adames landed many hard power shots, getting the better of the action against the weaker puncher Gausha. Much of the activity came from Gausha, but it consisted mostly of jabs and weak shots that weren’t doing much.
Super middleweight veteran Kyrone Davis (18-3-1, 6 KOs) labored to a questionable ten-round split decision win over previously unbeaten Elijah Garcia (16-1, 13 KOs).
The scores were 99-93, 97-93 for Kyrone, and 98-92 for Garcia. Boxing News 24 scored it for Garcia 98-92. Surprisingly, Kyrone won because he spent virtually the entire fight pinned to the ropes.
It was difficult to see Kyrone winning more than one or two rounds in the fight because he was getting nailed with body shots from Garcia the entire contest. He seemed incapable of fighting in the center of the ring against the younger, busier, and stronger fighter.
Kyrone fought like an old veteran, unable to take the center ring against the younger fighter, and it was shocking that the judges gave him the victory by such wide scores.
The 21-year-old Garcia outworked the PBC fighter Kyrone the entire fight, keeping him pinned to the ropes, hitting him with nonstop body punches, and appearing to dominate the action.
In the ninth and tenth, Garcia went head-hunting, nailing the 29-year-old Kyrone with hard power shots to control the action.