Gervonta Davis is looking to become a two-division titlist to close out 2019.
Showtime announced that Davis will face former world champion Yuriorkis Gamboa in the main event of a card from the State Farm Arena on December 28. The fight will be for the newly-created WBA "Regular" lightweight title.
Davis previously held the WBA super featherweight title since 2018 when he defeated Jesus Cuellar. After being inactive for the remainder of the year, Davis returned in February and knocked out Hugo Ruiz in the first round. Soon after, Davis was ordered by the WBA to fight mandatory challenger Ricardo Nunez and the two faced off in Davis' hometown of Baltimore in July with the champion stopping Nunez in the second round. Less than two months ago, it had been revealed that Davis vacated the WBA super featherweight title and was the sanctioning body's top contender at lightweight.
Gamboa was at one point the unified WBA and IBF featherweight champion and has only lost twice since the start of 2014, once against Terence Crawford for the WBO lightweight title and once against Robinson Castellanos. After the 2017 loss to Castellanos, Gamboa has won four straight, including a second-round knockout win over Roman Martinez in July on the same card Davis headlined against Nunez.
Also announced for the telecast is an interim WBA light heavyweight title bout between Jean Pascal and Badou Jack.
This will be Jack's first fight since suffering a really nasty cut during a fight against Marcus Browne in January. Jack ended up losing the bout by unanimous decision with the interim title on the line. Browne, who once held the WBC light heavyweight title, ended up losing the title to Pascal on a PBC event in August. That fight saw Pascal win the fight by technical decision in the eighth round as the bout was stopped due to Browne being cut from an accidental headbutt.
