Key events
Preamble
Hello and welcome to tonight’s WBA lightweight championship fight between Gervonta Davis and Frank Martin. The popular Davis, a Baltimore native unbeaten in 29 professional fights, is back in action for the first time since last year’s seventh-round knockout of Ryan Garcia, which appeared to confer his status as the face of American boxing. He will be defending his title at 135lbs against Martin, an undefeated challenger from Indianapolis.
Most boxing fans would rather see Davis in with the other stars at or around his weight class like Devin Haney or Shakur Stevenson. Those fights may happen, but for now we’ll settle for Martin, who has done nothing but defeat the names in front of him while building a record of 18-0 with 12 knockouts.
One bout of note on the undercard is a title fight scheduled for 12 rounds between David Benavidez and Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the vacant WBC interim light heavyweight strap. That should be under way in the next 15 minutes or so. Then it will be time for the main event.
Plenty more to come.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s a look at Friday’s eventful weigh-in.