Gurgen Hovhannisyan will take another step up in competition April 22.
BoxingScene.com has learned that the huge Armenian heavyweight will face former IBF champion Charles Martin on the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia undercard. The 10-round bout between Hovhannisyan and Martin will be one of two fights Showtime will stream on its YouTube channel before the pay-per-view portion of the Davis-Garcia undercard begins at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Showtime also is expected to stream a 10-round, 154-pound fight in which Vito Mielnicki Jr. (14-1, 9 KOs), of Roseland, New Jersey, will meet Mexico’s Elias Espadas (22-5, 15 KOs, 1 NC) before its four-fight pay-per-view show begins at 8 p.m. ET.
The 6-foot-7, 275-pound Hovhannisyan (4-0, 4 KOs) stopped American Michael Coffie after six one-sided rounds in his last fight, which was part of the Deontay Wilder-Robert Helenius undercard October 15 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Coffie (13-3, 10 KOs), of Kissimmee, Florida, has lost three of his past four fights, though, whereas Martin (29-3-1, 26 KOs) represents the toughest test of the 25-year-old Hovhannisyan’s career.
The 6-foot-5, 260-pound Martin is 36, but he has won four of his five fights since he lost a 10-round unanimous decision to then-undefeated Adam Kownacki in September 2018 at Barclays Center. The strong southpaw’s lone loss during that stretch was a sixth-round technical knockout to Cuba’s Luis Ortiz (33-3, 28 KOs, 2 NC), whom Martin dropped once in the first round and again in the fourth round before Ortiz floored him twice in the sixth round of their action-packed bout in January 2022 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Martin mentioned rematches with Ortiz or Kownacki or fights against Jared Anderson, Daniel Dubois or Lenier Pero during an interview with BoxingScene.com in February. Rather than continuing to wait for one of those fights to materialize, the St. Louis native took this opportunity to knock off a highly regarded prospect.
Las Vegas’ Martin last fought on the Andy Ruiz-Ortiz undercard September 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Martin knocked out 2004 U.S. Olympian Devin Vargas (22-8, 9 KOs) in the fourth round of that tune-up bout.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.