Though PBC has yet to officially announce its rumored December 14th Gervonta Davis/David Benavidez doubleheader, but we’re about as close to official as we can get. Shortly after Benavidez dispelled rumors that of a David Morrell Jr fight and confirmed that he’d face Jesse Hart, the WBA has given super featherweight champion Lamont Roach Jr clearance to challenge “Tank” for the lightweight title.
Roach (25-1-1, 10 KO), who upset Hector Luis Garcia for the belt last November, has enjoyed a profoundly weird reign. The WBA gave him two mandatories in Jono Carroll and Otar Eranosyan, then let him fight the hapless Feargal McCrory instead and made Carroll fight Albert Batyrgaziev while Eranosyan continued his year-long sit on the sidelines following his August 2023 eliminator win over Roger Gutierrez. It genuinely makes no sense; it’s not like Roach is some big moneymaker they’re trying to protect.
He’ll allegedly have to fight Batyrgaziev within 120 days if he loses this one, but they said the same thing about Eranosyan so who knows.
Davis (30-0, 28 KO), last seen stopping Frank Martin in June, hasn’t fought a mandatory challenger since stopping Rolando Romero more than two years ago. There are rumblings that he’ll fight Shakur Stevenson in a unification sometime next year, but for the moment, we’ll have to content ourselves with watching him face a super featherweight champion for the second time in four fights.