American World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight champion Gervonta Davis completed the first successful defense of his world title as he knocked out fellow countryman and contender Frank Martin to legitimize his status as an actual world champion, and further drive home the point of him being one of the best fighters in his division. The two headlined a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) card at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, July 15th.

The WBA lightweight (135 lbs) title match between Gervonta Davis (30-0, 28 KO’s) and Frank Martin (18-1, 12 KO’s) saw the two Americans head into the match with unblemished records and everything to prove. At the beginning of the fight, it was title challenger Martin who appeared eager to prove his credentials as he pushed Davis hard in the first three rounds, arguably winning them all as he impressed with his combinations and accuracy while fighting on the front foot.

Gervonta Davis, however, is a known crafty fighter and slow starter whose ability to fight well on the back foot did not get him into too much trouble as Frank Martin pressed forward. Davis’ defense was sharp throughout Frank’s offensive, allowing him to catch most of his opponent’s blows on the gloves and allow him to be relatively unscathed.

However, things seemed to turn sharply in the 3rd round as Frank Martin appeared to have fatigued himself, marking it Gervonta Davis’ turn to launch his own offensive which Martin struggled against. With Martin’s defense lacking in comparison to that of Davis, the fight seemed to be gradually turning around as the skilled yet powerful Davis managed to sneak in arguably more powerful blows to Martin.

From round 4 onwards, Martin was forced on the defensive and appeared to deteriorate in effort and stamina whereas Davis appeared to be warming up and getting better each subsequent round. It eventually led to several pivotal moments in the 7th round where Davis buzzed Martin several times after a couple of hard and destructive blows that clearly indicated the match was going in favor of Davis.

The 8th round proved to be even more destructive as Gervonta Davis trapped Frank Martin, blasting off powerful shots that forced Martin to cover up in the corner and prevented him from retaliating. Fighting from the southpaw position, Davis caught Martin with a left uppercut while hitting him with combinations and the blow jarred Martin to the point he left a split-second opening; one that Davis firmly took advantage of as he followed up with a crushing left hand that dropped Frank Martin.

The referee started counting following the knockdown but Frank Martin failed to get up in time, culminating in Gervonta Davis winning the match by knockout (KO) in the 8th round―as was announced after, and resulting in Davis completing the first defense of his WBA title since being promoted to world champion.

The PBC co-main event featured a light-heavyweight (175 lbs) title bout between American contender David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KO’s) and Ukrainian former world champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk (20-2, 16 KO’s) for the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) interim title.

The two were engaged in a competitive fight that was mostly decided by Benavidez who looked well-accustomed to his new weight at 175 lbs but seemed to slightly miss out on the power he exemplified in the super middleweight (168 lbs) division. However, it should be noted that Gvozdyk, a former elite competitor, did not come to lay down and used his defensive capabilities well to avoid himself from getting severely punished or dominated.

Overall, Benavidez proved to be the more active and effective fighter, eventually leading to a unanimous decision (UD) win [through scores of 117-111, 119-109 and 116-112] over Gvozdyk that allowed him to become the WBC interim champion. Benavidez will now have to make the choice between staying at 175 lbs or moving back down to super middleweight as he is not allowed to hold two titles [interim, world or otherwise] in two separate divisions. Benavidez is currently also the holder of the interim WBC 168 lbs title.

The undercard saw several matches occur, but none more upsetting than the super lightweight (140 lbs) match between American contender Gary Antuanne Russell (17-1, 17 KO’s) and former 140 lbs world champion Alberto Puello (23-0, 10 KO’s) from the Dominican Republic for the vacant WBC title. Puello won a close split-decision (SD) contest through the judges’ scores of 114-113, 115-112 and a very odd score of 109-118 for Russell.

Russell, who has garnered a reputation as a power puncher due to his 100% KO ratio, failed to truly complement his power with a set of skills to dominate Puello. This can be attributed to the lack of quality opponent that Russell has faced who have had below-average defensive capabilities, unlike Puello who would go on to demonstrate throughout the match the difference between a top competitor, and a fringe contender.

While Russell was not inactive and the fight was competitive, Puello was very adept at keeping his range so he was able to box Russell, while Russell himself was less capable in cutting off the ring. While Russell stayed quite busy throughout the match, arguably more than Puello, Puello used a balanced set of tactics; drifting between counterattacking, pressuring, defending and boxing to win most of the rounds through sheer efficiency.

Following the 12 rounds, Puello was announced the winner by unanimous decision, having landed the more efficient and relevant punches whereas Russel, despite his activity, failed to truly get past Puello’s sharp defense while at the same time neglected his own defense.

Puello is now the interim WBC super lightweight champion, though it is important to note this does not necessarily mean he will face the current incumbent world champion, Devin Haney (31-1, 15 KO’s) who has been mandated to face WBC mandatory challenger Sandor Martin (42-3, 15 KO’s). An interim champion is often designated when the world champion is inactive due to injury or other circumstances, though as Haney does not fall under that category it is unknown why the interim title was introduced in the first place. Hence, it is still not clear whether the potential winner of Haney-Martin will face Puello afterwards, as Puello has not been designated as a mandatory challenger.

The PBC card further featured a middleweight (160 lbs) bout between recently-promoted WBC champion Carlos Adames (24-1, 20 KO’s) from the Dominican Republic and American challenger Terrell Guasha (24-4-1, 12 KO’s). Adames won the bout handily by UD through scorecards of 119-109, and 118-110 twice.