By: Sean Crose
The WBA super lightweight title will be up for grabs Saturday as defending 25-0 champion Mario Barrios faces the 18-2 Ryan Karl in a scheduled 12 round affair. The fight, which will be aired live on Showtime Pay Per View, is the co-main event of the Gervonta Davis-Leo Santa Cruz multi-weight title fight. Barrios won his title in September of 2019 when he bested Batyr Akhmedov by unanimous decision in a battle for the vacant belt. Karl, whose known as “Cowboy,” was last seen in the ring last November, when he bested Bergman Aguilar via a ring doctor’s stoppage in the fifth round.
The 19-1-1 Isaac Cruz will also appear on Saturday’s card as he faces the 32-3-0 Diego Magdaleno in scheduled twelve rounder. The winner will be in line for a shot at the IBF lightweight title. After being knocked out by Teofimo Lopez in 2019, Magdaleno went on to best Austin Dulay by unanimous decision last February. Cruz hasn’t lost a fight since 2016, having won a whopping fifteen in a row in the four plus years since his lone defeat. His last win was a majority decision over Thomas Mattice last Valentines’ Day.
Lastly, the 24-1 former WBA super lightweight champion Reigis Prograis will face the 16-0-1 Juan Heraldez in a scheduled ten round super lightweight affair. This will be Prograis’ return bout after suffering his first, and only, loss to Josh Taylor via majority decision just over a year ago. As for Heraldez, the man last fought way back in May of 2018 when he fought Ardenis Mendez to a draw.
The entire Davis-Santa Cruz card will go down at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The pay per view portion of the card will begin at 9 pm eastern time on Saturday courtesy of Showtime Pay Per View.