Baltimore’s Davis scheduled for title defense in October
The lightweight champion will face Leo Santa Cruz
Baltimore native Gervonta Davis is scheduled to headline a Showtime and Premier Boxing Champions fight card on Oct. 24 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Davis, the reigning WBA lightweight champion who last fought in December, will be part of a series of fights announced Wednesday that features a lineup of nine live boxing events featuring 18 undefeated fighters, nine world champions and eight world championship fights including one world title unification bout.
Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) is scheduled to fight Leo Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) for the World Boxing Association super featherweight world championship and the WBA lightweight world championship.
The bout will be contested at the super featherweight limit of 130 pounds. The winner of the match will earn world championships at 130 and135 pounds on the same night. Santa Cruz recently won the WBA (super) 130-pound world title on the line .
Davis, 25, boasts a knockout percentage of .957 while Santa Cruz is one of the busiest punchers in the sport. The winner of the fight will earn a top-10 spot on the pound-forpound list. The Premier Boxing Champions event is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, TGBPromotions, GTDPromotions and Santa Cruz Boxing Club.
Davis won his last fight in December at 135 pounds.
The matchup has been discussed since last year, with both Davis and Santa Cruz clamoring for it.
Davis was charged with battery after a public altercation with the mother of his child at a charity basketball game in February. He was scheduled for trial in Miami-Dade County on April 29, but the hearing was delayed and has not been assigned a new date, according to court records.
Davis, who won the World Boxing Association lightweight title in December with a 12th-round stoppage of Yuriorkis Gamboa, has never faced an opponent as accomplished as Santa Cruz. The 31-yearold Mexican has won world championships at four different weight classes. His only career loss, subsequently avenged, came against Carl Frampton in 2016.
Even before Davis defeated Gamboa on Dec. 28, his promoters and Showtime executives had begun to hype a potential fight with Santa Cruz on pay-per-view. He had earned such a showcase, they said, by filling arenas in Baltimore and Atlanta and drawing excellent ratings on Showtime.
The Showtime series features 22 matchups from bantamweight to heavyweight and features some of the biggest stars in the sport, including Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo and David Benavidez.
It is the largest collection of world championship boxing announced since the COVID-19 pandemic forced a stoppage of the sport.
The Showtime boxing schedule begins Aug. 1 and runs through the end of 2020. Initially, each live telecast will be presented without fans in attendance from Mohegan Sun Arena. Included in the schedule are four world title eliminators, three interim title fights and 13 bouts in all pitting top-10 ranked fighters.