Showtime packages Gervonta Davis, Gary Russell Jr. title defenses on May 20

Showtime Championship Boxing has just announced that it will package a handful of notable fights for a May 20th telecast. The Showtime telecast will feature Gervonta Davis (17-0, 16 KOs) making an IBF junior lightweight title defense against Liam Walsh (21-0, 14 KOs) in London, as well as Gary Russell Jr. (27-1, 16 KOs) making his WBC featherweight title defense against Oscar Escandon (25-2, 17 KOs) right outside of Washington D.C.

The show will also feature two title eliminator bouts which will round out the quadruple-header: Andre Dirrell (25-2, 16 KOs) taking on José Uzcátegui (26-1, 22 KOs) in an IBF super middleweight fight (with the winner becoming James DeGale’s mandatory challenger); and Rances Barthelemy (25-0, 13 KOs) facing Kiryl Relikh (21-1, 19 KOs) in a WBA eliminator (to determine Julius Indongo’s mandatory challenger).

“May 20 will be a big night of boxing and it kicks off a run of four consecutive weeks of world class fights on SHOWTIME,” said Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President and General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports. “We have consistently delivered the biggest and most important boxing events from around the globe to SHOWTIME subscribers. This unique presentation—four fights, two world championships and two title eliminators, from different continents, all on one show—is yet another example of our unrivaled commitment to the sport.”

In order for Showtime to package all four fights in this split-site format, the Davis-Walsh fight may be aired on delay for up to 30 minutes. That aside, and let’s just be honest here, this is a pretty mothaf*#kin’ good show! In fact, boxing in 2017 has been so good that I fear we might’ve set the bar too high, with nowhere to go but down from here. Yet from an optimistic standpoint I simply say, ‘let’s just ride the wave!’

Enjoy it folks.