Saturday Showtime Boxing Preview: David Benavidez-Ronald Ellis

By: Sean Crose

Undefeated super middleweight David Benavidez returns to the ring this Saturday night when he faces Ronald Ellis in a scheduled 12 round affair from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut. The card will be aired live on Showtime starting at 9PM eastern time. A knockout artist who twice held the WBC super-middleweight title, Benavidez is known as one of the top fighters in his division. Yet the 24-year-old has had his issues throughout his seven plus year career. Benavidez was stripped of his belt after testing positive for cocaine in 2018. After regaining the title in 2019, he lost it the following year on the scale. That was just before his last fight, which resulted in a tenth-round retirement victory over Roamer Alexis Angulo in August.

As for Ellis, the 31-year-old Massachusetts native has the chance of a lifetime this weekend. Should he best the popular Benevidez, he will find himself suddenly catapulted towards the top of the red-hot super middleweight division. Ellis was last seen in the ring this past December when he bested Matvey Korobov by retiring his opponent in the fourth. Ellis aims to be the spoiler this weekend, keeping the more well known Benevidez from moving on to names like Plant and Canelo.

The 24-0 lightweight Jose Matais Romero will be on Saturday’s Showtime card as well. He’ll be facing off against the 20-1-1 Isaac Cruz Gonzalez in a scheduled twelve round affair. Romero’s last fight was in November of last year when he decisioned Javier Jose Clavero after twelve rounds of action. Gonzalez’ most recent ring performance was a brief one. Last October the 22-year-old knocked out Diego Magdaleno in the first of a scheduled twelve round bout. The only blemish on Gonzalez’ resume is a 2016 loss to Jose Miguel Montano. Since that time, Romero has gone 15-0, with one draw.

Saturday’s card will also feature the 21-2-1 super welterweight Terrell Gausha as he faces the 15-1-1 Jamontay Clark in a scheduled ten rounder. Guasha last saw action in September when he dropped a unanimous decision to Erickson Lubin. Cincinnati’s Clark was last seen in the ring back in February of 2020, when he won an eight rounder over Anthony Lenk via unanimous decision on the judges’ cards.

Although Saturday’s Showtime card will be marginalized by DAZN’s big Gonzalez-Estrada II card, there’s some room for decent action to be found here.