WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and challenger Hector Luis Garcia both weighed 134 pounds on Friday for their main event bout on Showtime pay-per-view for their 9:00 p.m. event. This is a formidable hurdle that Tank Davis must get past to face Ryan Garcia in April.
Fight fans on the UK can watch the fights on FITETV – The main card is set to get underway at 9 p.m. ET with the main event ringwalks scheduled for 12 a.m. ET
The exciting welterweight contender Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, who intends on stealing the show from Tank, weighed 145.6 lbs, and his opponent Karen Chukhadzhian weighed 146.2 lbs.
Ennis (29-0, 27 KOs) and Chukhadzhian (21-1, 11 KOs) will fight for the vacant interim IBF 147-lb title. The winner will knock on IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr’s door for a title shot later this year.
Spence will have no choice but to defend against the winner with 120 days unless he gets permission from the IBF to bypass the fight, which is certainly possible if he’s facing WBO champion Terence Crawford for the undisputed championship.
Weights:
Gervonta Davis 134 vs. Hector Luis Garcia 134
Jaron Ennis 145.6 vs. Karen Chukhadzhian 146.2
Rashidi Ellis 146.2 vs. Roiman Villa 145.8
Demetrius Andrade 167 vs. Demond Nicholson 167.2
Vito Mielnicki Jr 153.2 vs. Omar Rosales 152.8
Brandun Lee 141.4 vs. Diego Luque 141.2
Travon Marshall 149.8 vs. Shawn West 151.2
Rashidi Ellis (24-0, 15 KOs) weighed 146.2 lbs for his IBF welterweight title eliminator against Roiman Villa (25-1, 24 KOs) in their 12-round match-up. Ellis, 29, is hoping to get either a title shot against Spence next or a fight against Boots Ennis.
With the way that Rashidi and Ennis were trading words during Thursday’s final press conference, there’s a good chance the two will meet up next if Spence gives up his IBF belt or is granted permission from the sanctioning body to circumvent his mandatory defense against Boots.
Ennis would rather fight Spence for the IBF title, but if he must face Rashidi for the belt, he will.
Demetrius Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) weighed 167 lbs, and his opponent Demond Nicholson (26-4-1, 22 KOs) weighed 167.2 for their 10 round fight.
Andrade is getting his foot wet in his first fight with PBC, and he’s hoping that they can set him up with a fight against Jermall Charlo next.
If Charlo isn’t willing to fight Andrade, then Demetrius will need to look in a different direction toward the winner of the Caleb Plant vs. David Benavidez fight. That’s probably a more realistic opposition. It doesn’t seem likely that Charlo will agree to fight him.
Jermall has been too inactive over the last two years, and he’s not going to want to face the slick southpaw Andrade coming off a two-year layoff.
