Jaron Ennis and Roiman Villa will still fight in Atlantic City on July 8, but at a different venue than initially expected.
BoxingScene.com has learned that the Ennis-Villa bout will headline a Premier Boxing Champions card at Boardwalk Hall’s Adrian Phillips Theater. Philadelphia’s Ennis announced and BoxingScene.com reported recently that their fight would be held at nearby Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, but PBC’s Al Haymon instead finalized a site deal with Boardwalk Hall.
Boardwalk Hall’s Theater, which can accommodate more than 3,000 fans for boxing, is comparable in size to Borgata Event Center. Tickets for the Ennis-Villa card are expected to go on sale soon.
Showtime will televise the 12-round bout between Ennis (30-0, 27 KOs, 1 NC) and Venezuela’s Villa (26-1, 24 KOs) as the main event of a tripleheader three weeks from Saturday night. Ennis will make his first defense of the IBF interim welterweight title he won in his last fight, an easy 12-round, unanimous-decision victory over unknown Ukrainian contender Karen Chukhadzhian (22-2, 12 KOs) on January 7 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
As previously reported by BoxingScene.com’s Jake Donovan, lightweights Edwin De Los Santos (15-1, 14 KOs), a Dominican southpaw who resides in Reading, Pennsylvania, and Joseph Adorno (17-2-2, 14 KOs), of Allentown, Pennsylvania, will square off in Showtime’s co-feature July 8.
BoxingScene.com also has learned that junior middleweights Yoelvis Gomez and Marquis Taylor have agreed to meet in the opener of Showtime’s three-bout broadcast July 8.
Gomez (6-0, 5 KOs) will end a 13-month layoff when he faces Taylor. The Cuban southpaw was supposed to face former IBF/IBO/WBA 154-pound champ Jeison Rosario on November 5 at The Armory in Minneapolis, but Gomez withdrew from their bout late in October because he suffered an injury to his right wrist while training.
Gomez last fought in May 2022, when he outpointed Mexican veteran Jorge Cota (30-6, 27 KOs) unanimously in their 10-rounder at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Showtime televised Gomez’s victory over Cota as well.
Taylor, meanwhile, will try to knock off a second undefeated prospect in less than nine months.
Taylor (14-1-2, 1 KO), of Galena Park, Texas, defeated Detroit’s Marlon Harrington (9-1, 8 KOs) by unanimous decision in Taylor’s last televised appearance, an eight-round bout October 21 at Bally’s Grand Ballroom in Atlantic City. Showtime aired Taylor’s win against Harrington as part of the network’s long-running prospect series, “ShoBox: The New Generation.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.