They are two of the most intriguing fighters on the landscape, each poised to produce the most significant fights and moments of this decade.
On June 15, unbeatens Gervonta “Tank” Davis and David Benavidez – with a combined 51 knockouts in 57 bouts – will share a Las Vegas pay-per-view in the 100th championship boxing event at MGM Grand.
For Baltimore’s WBA lightweight champion Davis (29-0, 27 KOs), the main event proposes a test of mettle and skill brought forth by a foe in Detroit’s Frank Martin (18-0, 12 KOs) who has spent the better part of three months training in Texas under respected cornerman Derrick James.
And Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) takes to light-heavyweight against former champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk as a response to being passed over again by Canelo Alvarez despite former super-middleweight champion Benavidez’s two-year-long position as No. 1 WBC contender.
“The knockouts, the flare, the swagger, his popularity in his culture makes his star rise,” former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi said in a Thursday discussion about Davis and Benavidez on ProBox TV’s “Deep Waters.” “Benavidez is destructive. The way he wins his fights … mix that in with the question, ‘Is Canelo ducking him?’ and there’s a curiosity.”
Former welterweight champion Shawn Porter said on Thursday’s episode that, “I don’t think we ever see this (Alvarez-Benavidez) fight. Canelo Alvarez simply doesn’t want it and it’s the only fight people want to see at 168 (pounds).”
By moving up to 175 pounds, the 27-year-old Phoenix fighter nicknamed the “Mexican Monster” by Mike Tyson may actually be leaving Alvarez in his wake toward bouts against the likes of light-heavyweight champions Dmitrii Bivol and Artur Beterbiev on his way to cruiserweight and – most lucrative – heavyweight.
“This is a weighty issue,” former 140-pound champion Chris Algieri said on the show. “Will we really see (Benavidez) at 168 again? He says he can, but his body might say different.”
In Gvozdyk (20-1, 16 KOs), Benavidez confronts a Ukrainian whose only loss was to the merciless Russian Beterbiev and the bout leaves him on similar calendars with unbeaten WBA champion Bivol, who is supposed to fight Beterbiev next. But the Russian’s ruptured meniscus may leave him sidelined until 2025.
Davis, meanwhile, returns to the ring for the first time since he and Ryan Garcia generated 1.2 million pay-per-view buys in April 2023.
Working at his own pace is Davis’ style in the ring, too, as seen in his rally to knock out Rolando Romero, Leo Santa Cruz and others.
“Gervonta seems completely unbothered by being out of the ring or by falling behind, because he knows he’s got that dynamite,” Algieri said. “You don’t know when these (Davis and Benavidez) fights are going to end … it gets exciting waiting for that to happen.”
Against the sharp Martin, however, the “Deep Waters” panel expects Davis to fight with urgency rather than let rounds be lost on the scorecards. Algieri calls Martin “the best southpaw and biggest lightweight” Davis has fought. Porter said he expects Davis to seek to bully Martin.
“Tank’ is in jeopardy of not getting the knockout … Frank Martin is fast, sharp, quick, intuitive, a counter-puncher and a southpaw,” Porter said.
Martin has also previously sparred with Davis
Said Malignaggi: “A guy like Frank Martin can bring out the best in Gervonta Davis.”
And, unlike non-Canelo foes for Benavidez at 168, Davis has a wealth of talent at lightweight – champions Shakur Stevenson and Vasiliy Lomachenko – and 140 – champions Devin Haney, Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz, Teofimo Lopez and Subriel Matias – to consider for future bouts.
Malignaggi likes Davis best as a lightweight, although Porter describes Davis’ punching as “generational power that does translate at 140.”
One fight that has been floated for Davis is a showdown against Japan’s unbeaten, four-division undisputed super-bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue.
“I’m throwing that out the window,” Algieri said. “Inoue is already on his fifth weight class, and you’re asking him to jump three more?”
Malignaggi agreed it’s too great of a stretch.
“This is a sucker’s fight. (Inoue’s) getting dropped at 122,” as he did in his recent successful title defense against Mexico’s Luis Nery, Malignaggi noted.