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Unbeaten Rising Contender David Benavidez & Former European Amateur Star Ronald Gavril Battle for Vacant WBC Super Middleweight World Title
in Main Event of SHOWTIME BOXING: SPECIAL EDITION® Friday, Sept. 8Live on SHOWTIME at 10:05 p.m. ET/PT
LAS VEGAS (Sept. 5, 2017) – Fight Week is here for the six boxers competing in this Friday’s SHOWTIME BOXING: SPECIAL EDITION telecast, headlined by unbeaten rising star David Benavidez and contender Ronald Gavril who will battle for the vacant WBC Super Middleweight World Championship live on SHOWTIME (10:05 p.m. ET/PT) from The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas.
The event, presented by Premier Boxing Champions, will feature two additional showdowns in the super middleweight division. Once-beaten J’Leon Love (23-1, 13 KOs) will battle Texas-native Abraham Han (26-3, 16 KOs) in a 10-round bout while unbeaten prospect Caleb Plant (15-0, 10 KOs) takes on 31-year-old Phoenix, Ariz., switch-hitter Andrew Hernandez (19-6-1, 9 KOs), who steps in for Alan Campa for the 10-round attraction.
Tickets for the live event, which is promoted by Mayweather Promotions and Sampson Boxing, are priced at $100, $50 and $25, and are on sale Tuesday, Aug. 22. To purchase tickets visit AXS.com or the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas Box Office.
The following is a training camp update from each of the fighters on this Friday’s tripleheader.
David “El Bandera Roja” Benavidez
Benavidez on training camp:
“My training camps are always fairly long. I only take a week off after every fight and go back into training. For the first couple weeks, it’s just moving around, then we slowly work into the hard training. For this one, I probably had like a month and a half, two months.”
On his opponent:
“I feel like he [Ronald Gavril] has a really good style for me to showcase my skills, like how I did against Rogelio Medina. With our sparring partners, we have brawlers and we have boxers, as well. Whatever style he fights on that night, I’m going to be prepared for it.”
Ronald “The Thrill” Gavril
Gavril on training camp:
“I feel really sharp and I’m really happy with how everything has gone during training. This is the opportunity that I’ve worked so hard to get to and I’m definitely not letting it slip by. I know that everything needs to be 100 percent on fight night so I’m pushing myself to be ready to do whatever it takes to leave with the belt.”
On his opponent:
“Benavidez is a strong guy who’s coming in with a lot of support behind him, but I’m not going to let any of that distract me from my preparation. Me and my trainer are going to have a great game plan for him. I know he wants to be active and smother me and we’re going to show him all of the parts of my game.”
Eddie Mustafa Muhammad:
“I got Ronald sparring with the IBF’s number-one super middleweight contender, Jose Uzcategui. He’s giving us good work, too—he can fight. We also sparred Badou Jack for a couple rounds. We’ve got an abundance of guys that we’re working with.
“The way they’re talking about Benavidez, it’s like he’s King Kong. But it’s good—perfect! Ronald is a boxer-puncher, he can adapt. That’s the whole key. He has a wealth of amateur experience. This is our opportunity. We’ve talked about this for a while now, and Ronald is at a point where he’s ready right now…It’s going to be a great fight.”
J’Leon Love
Love on training camp:
“My training camp—it’s been months! I started training in April. Being that we had fights fall out, I always stayed in the gym. That’s the hardest part, because I feel like I’ve had bad luck with fights falling out. But one thing I can say—we train our ass off! I just want to go on vacation after this.”
“We’ve had a lot of good sparring—Lionell Thompson and Denis Douglin have been in here working. We’ve had so many sparring partners throughout this camp, and we’ve just been working, working, working.
On his opponent:
“I remember Abie Han from the amateurs. He’s always been a tough fighter. You can’t look past anybody. Everybody comes in that ring to fight. Everybody comes in with a different mode or a different drive, so this may be the drive he has to really come out and explode on the scene and beat me. So, I’m taking him absolutely, positively serious, like he’s a world championship fighter and we’re fighting for the world title.”
Abraham “The Sun City Warrior” Han
Han on training camp:
“I train at my dad’s martial arts studio in El Paso – Han’s Martial Arts. I’m sparring mostly with local people from El Paso, and I also sparred with Austin Trout.
“I’ve been working hard and working with Austin (Trout) and that makes a big difference. Austin makes me so much better. He’s been a world champion and he will be a world champion again. His expertise and his knowledge is amazing. He’s been in those situations and he tells me little things along the way and I think that will make all the difference in this fight.”
Caleb “Sweet Hands” Plant
Plant on training camp:
“I’ve been living in Las Vegas for more than a year now – since August 24th, 2016. I’ve been in the gym consistently this whole time since my last fight, but my ‘official’ training camp will be seven or eight weeks. We bounce around to a couple of different gyms for sparring. I’ve had good work this camp – great sparring, good strength and conditioning, good gym work, and I’ve had good rest. I have a good diet.
“I know every boxer says, ‘Oh, this is my best camp,’ and a lot of times they don’t mean it. But this has literally been my best camp. Things are very smooth.”
Andrew Hernandez
What Hernandez has to say:
“I’ve known my trainer, Alan Beirs, for a while. He actually helped me with my last couple of fights – we’ve only been together maybe six months or so. He worked my corner in February, but we weren’t working completely together. Then when I got back in the gym in March, that’s when we really started working together.
“I train at a place called Gents Gym in Arrowhead, Ariz. I trained there with the Busted Knuckles Boxing crew – that’s Alan Beirs’ crew. We’re all pushing each other to get better and I know they’ll have me ready for fight night.”
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