March Begins with a Triple World Title Card in New York

We seem to be in the age of the unification match. Could we be seeing more in the Lightweight and Super Lightweight divisions this year?

New York is the place to be on March 1 when there are three world title bouts being held at the Brooklyn Center. Top of an action-packed card is Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis defending his WBA ‘Super’ Lightweight title against Lamont Roach. Also that night both the WBA and WBC Super Lightweight titles will be on the line as Jose Valenzuela and Alberto Puella defend their belts.

It promises to be a fascinating night of boxing but also a busy one for New York’s online sportsbooks, such as Fanduel Sports NY. 2022 saw the state finally change their gambling laws and make mobile sports betting legal. Since then, the state’s sportsbooks have enjoyed tremendous success. It’s a massive disappointment these days if they don’t take bets of over $2 billion in a calendar month.

Betting on boxing is just like the sport itself. You can never tell what’s going to happen and in particular, in-play betting sees the odds offered continually fluctuating as their value totally depends on what is happening in the ring.

Gary Antuanne Russell challenges Jose Valenzuela for his WBA Super Lightweight title on March 1. The champion has won 14 of his 16 professional fights and won the belt last year with a split decision win over Isaac Cruz. That’s the same Cruz who is one of just two men to go the distance with Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.

The 25-year-old has had to rebuild his career after successive losses in 2022 and 2023, including a three-round loss to Edwin De Los Santos who later went 12 rounds with Shakur Stevenson. Valenzuela has won his last two fights (including avenging a loss to Chris Colbert)and now puts his title on the line for the first time.

Gary Antuanne Russell is the outsider with New York sportsbooks but his 17 professional wins have all come inside the distance. His only loss came against Alberto Puella last year, despite one judge giving the fight to him by nine points!

If he can beat Valenzuela, then a unification bout with WBC champion Alberto Puella might be on the cards. That’s if Puella can hold onto his world title in New York on March 1 and he faces a tough task against the Spanish veteran.

Puella has a perfect 23-0 record and ten of his wins have come inside the distance. He hasn’t fought since beating Russell and has been taken the distance in his last five fights, two won by a split decision.

Sandor Martin will be having his 46th professional fight and has suffered just one loss since 2017. That was when fighting Teofimo Lopez three years ago. He lost on a split decision and knocked Lopez down in the second round.

A glance at the current odds being offered by New York sportsbooks indicate we could be in for a thriller on March 1. Both boxers are available at -116 at the time of writing. It’ll be interesting to see how the odds fluctuate in the lead-up to this fight. It will be the first fight for Martin since December 2023 and that inactivity might go against him.

To the main event now and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis making the first defence of his WBA ‘Super’ Lightweight title. He faces Lamont Roach who is currently the WBA Super Featherweight champion. For a boxer to move up in weight and win is not an easy task. Connor Benn may well find that out against Chris Eubank Jr this year and it’ll be tough for Terence Crawford if he does fight Cancelo.

Roach has only lost one professional fight and that was against Jamel Herring for the WBO Super Featherweight title in 2019. He’s never been stopped or knocked down but it’s doubtful he’s met anyone who has such a heavy punch as Davis. He’s the long outsider with sportsbooks to cause a shock and beat Davis.

There was plenty of disappointment when this fight was announced. With Davis saying he wants to retire this year, there are much more attractive fights he could be having. A unification fight with Shakur Stevenson (if he gets past Floyd Schofield on February 22) is a bout we all want to see.

The same goes for other fights such as Vasyl Lomachenko, a rematch with Ryan Garcia or Teofimo Lopez. We could yet see those fights, though perhaps not in Saudi Arabia as Davis has been critical of those who head to that country and take the megabucks on offer.

First he has to get past Roach and he’s a very short price to do so. You’re best betting on in which round Davis will win as better odds are available, though it’s a while since he won in the early rounds. There are plenty of shocks in boxing but it’d be a massive one if Roach was to win this fight on March 1.