Former welterweight champion Danny Garcia returns to the boxing ring against hard slugging brawler Brandon Rios, and on the undercard WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez will defend his title in a rematch against Floyd Mayweather’s fighter Ronald Gavril, live on SHOWTIME from Las Vegas.
The last time Danny Garcia fought was in March of 2017 when he faced off against fellow undefeated welterweight champion (WBA) Keith Thurman in a unification fight, he wound up losing a split decision and his WBC title.
Garcia and his father Angel felt they did enough to win the fight and believe a rematch with Thurman will be much different.
On his way back to the top there is one obstacle and that is former lightweight champion Brandon Rios.
Rios is widely known as a come forward Mexican style pressure fighter, he doesn’t run and likes to pressure his opponents many times taking unnecessary damage just to give punches back.
He has 3 losses, all against top caliber opponents, Mike Alvarado, Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley.
After his stoppage loss to Bradley in 2015, Rios announced his retirement, it only lasted a year and he came back in 2017 stopping Aaron Herrera.
Both fighters are looking to make a statement but Rios the underdog feels everyone is writing him off since his fight with Bradley, he believes he will shock the world with his new dedication to the sport and show the world the Rios that was relentless and threw hundreds of punches.
The co-feature of the night will be a rematch of an exciting back and forth fight between undefeated WBC champion David Benavidez and Romanian challenger Ronald Gavril who fights out of the Mayweather gym in Las Vegas.
The first fight was for the vacant WBC 168 pound title, it was a close hard fought fight but the judges scored it a split decision one in favor of Gavril and the other two scoring it wide in favor of Benavidez, many boxing fans who viewed the fight felt it was a controversial decision that should have went to Gavril especially after his knockdown of Benavidez in round 12.
Danny Garcia vs. Brandon Rios, David Benavidez vs. Ronald Gavril live on February 17 at 10PM ET/7PM PT on SHOWTIME Championship Boxing.
