Jose Pedraza To Defend IBF Super Featherweight Title Against Gervonta Davis

Despite worries from the boxing community about the significant increase in insurance payments for promoters wanting to hold fight cards in New York, there might be another world title fight at the Barclays Center on January 14 involving IBF super featherweight champion Jose Pedraza and Gervonta Davis.

According to promoters, the title fight will be on the undercard of the James DeGale vs. Badou Jack super middleweight world title unification bout on January 14 at the Barclays Center.

Promoter Lou DiBella told ESPN he is excited for the fight between the two. Davis is a protégé from Floyd Mayweather’s promotion company and is undefeated in all 16 fights in his professional career.

“I think it’s a helluva fight, very dangerous, but it’s a fight Pedraza wanted,” DiBella said. “Davis has been screaming and yelling that he wanted a big fight, and he got what he wanted.”

Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe said Floyd Mayweather had been wanting to bring a big boxing fight to the city of New York and establish a footing inside the city’s great boxing history as a promoter.

“We feel very, very confident that Gervonta is going to win the fight, and we think that he’s going to do it in spectacular fashion,” Ellerbe said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity, and he’s ready to step up and seize the moment. This is something me and Floyd have been working on for some time. Floyd has been wanting to bring a big event to New York and invade New York. Mayweather Promotions invades New York. It’s something we’ve been working on. We’re very confident that everything will be worked out [with regard to the insurance issue]. Lou and his team have worked extremely hard, and Floyd has been very adamant that he wants to do anything in his power to make this happen.”

Pedraza won the then-vacant IBF super featherweight title against Andrey Klimov last year and had made two successful defenses of his belt.