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Gervonta Davis set to face Yuriorkis Gamboa, Dec. 28

Davis and Gamboa will compete for the WBA’s vacant ‘regular’ lightweight world title.

Gervonta Davis v Ricardo Nunez Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

Sources have confirmed to Mike Coppinger that former junior lightweight world titleholder Gervonta Davis (22-0, 21 KOs) will be officially moving up to lightweight on December 28th to take on Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-2, 18 KOs) for the WBA’s vacant ‘regular’ world title.

The card will be broadcast by Showtime and feature Badou Jack vs. Jean Pascal as the co-featured bout. Atlanta, where Davis currently lives, is said to be the leading candidate to host the card, with New York also in play.

WIth all that out of the way, let me just say that I can’t believe they’re gonna do my boy Yuri like this...

Gamboa will be 38-years-old by the time the bell rings for this fight, and arguably hasn’t been in with a really dangerous opponent since Terence Crawford in 2014. In fact it was in that fight that Gamboa proved to be a clearly undersized lightweight, and really only managed to compete for awhile because of his tremendous talent. That talent, however, has since faded.

Following his knockout loss to Crawford, Gamboa bounced back with a few much softer touches before getting stopped again, but this time by Robinson Castellanos in 2017. Gamboa would once again go back down the ladder in an attempt to rebuild, but did manage to take a majority decision against Jason Sosa and most recently stop Rocky Martinez (which looks pretty good on paper at least).

But against him will be Davis, an explosive 24-year-old phenom who’s now emerging into his physical prime. Davis appears to have all the talent in the world, all the right political connections, and tons of momentum behind him.

In fairness, the stature of these fighters makes this a favorable foray into the lightweight division for Davis (both are only about 5’5”), but the decade-plus in age difference will surely benefit Davis who’s the much sharper and the much bigger puncher, all without nearly the number of miles on his body.

But that’s just one man’s opinion, anyway. What say you, fans?

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