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Gurgen Hovhannisyan Injured, Fight With Charles Martin Scratched From Davis-Garcia Undercard
BY
KEITH IDEC
Published Tue Apr 04, 2023, 11:24 AM EDT
Gurgen Hovhannisyan has suffered an injury that’ll prohibit him from taking a significant step up in competition April 22.
BoxingScene.com has learned that the gigantic Armenian heavyweight has withdrawn from a 10-round fight against former IBF champion Charles Martin that was supposed to be part of the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia undercard two weeks from Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
It is possible that the Hovhannisyan-Martin match will be rescheduled once the 6-foot-7, 275-pound Hovhannisyan recovers from his rib injury. The 25-year-old Hovhannisyan (4-0, 4 KOs) is eager to test himself against a proven heavyweight, despite his limited professional experience, whereas Martin (29-3-1, 26 KOs) is confident Hovhannisyan isn’t ready for an opponent as dangerous as him.
The 6-foot-5, 260-pound Martin is 36, but he has lost just one of his five fights since his 10-round, unanimous-decision defeat to then-undefeated Adam Kownacki in September 2018 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The powerful southpaw’s only defeat since Kownacki out-pointed him in a fan-friendly fight came against Luis Ortiz (33-3, 28 KOs, 2 NC). Martin knocked Ortiz to the canvas once in the first round and again in the fourth round, but Ortiz dropped him twice in the sixth round of their back-and-forth fight and stopped him in January 2022 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Martin-Hovhannisyan was set to be one of two fights Showtime will stream on its YouTube channel before the four-fight show begins on pay-per-view at 8 p.m. ET ($84.99).
Premier Boxing Champions and Showtime announced the three Davis-Garcia pay-per-view undercard fights Monday night.
Cuban southpaw David Morrell Jr. (8-0, 7 KOs) will defend his WBA world super middleweight title against Ghana’s Sena Abgeko (27-2, 21 KOs) in the 12-round co-feature.
Russian super middleweight Bektemir Melikuziev (11-1, 9 KOs) will attempt to avenge his only professional loss when he squares off against Gabe Rosado (26-16-1, 15 KOs, 1 NC) in a 10-round rematch that will immediately precede the Morrell-Agbeko bout. Rosado stunningly knocked out Melikuziev in the third round of their June 2021 bout at the University of Texas-El Paso’s Don Haskins Center.
Elijah Garcia (14-0, 12 KOs) – a hard-hitting, 19-year-old middleweight from Wittmann, Arizona – will meet Mexico’s Kevin Salgado (15-1-1, 10 KOs) in the 10-round pay-per-view opener.
