© Provided by Boxing Junkie FORMER TWO-TIME SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLEHOLDER DAVID BENAVIDEZ RETURNS TO THE RING AGAINST RONALD ELLIS ON SATURDAY IN UNCASVILLE, CONN.
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DAVID BENAVIDEZ (23-0, 20 KOs)
VS. RONALD ELLIS (18-1-2, 12 KOs)
Date: Saturday, March 13
Time: 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
Where: Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Conn.
TV/Stream: Showtime
Division: Super middleweight (168 pounds)
At stake: No titles
Pound-for-pound ranking: None
Odds: NA
Also on the card: Kudratillo Abdukakhorov vs. Javier Flores, welterweights; Issac Cruz vs. Jose Ramero, lightweights; Jamontay Clark vs. Terrell Gausha, super middleweights
Prediction: Benavidez KO 7
Background: Benavidez is already a two-time 168-pound titleholder at 24, having most-recently lost his belt on the scale before stopping Roamer Alexis Angulo in August. The strapping, hard-punching Arizonan is a prime candidate to face one of the super middleweight titleholders - currently Canelo Alvarez, Caleb Plant and Billy Joe Saunders - but he must keep winning the meantime. Ellis is a capable boxer-puncher who is coming off a fourth-round stoppage of Matt Korobov that ended prematurely when Korobov injured his ankle in December. He outpointed Immanuwel Aleem a year before that. Benavidez has stopped J'Leon Love, Anthony Dirrell and Angulo after back-to-back decisions over Ronald Gavril in 2017 and 2018.
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