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| - Mexico's four-division world champion Leo Santa Cruz and unbeaten American world champion Gervonta Davis meet Saturday for the World Boxing Association super-featherweight title in a showdown at San Antonio, Texas. Davis, 23-0 with 22 knockouts, vacated the WBA super-featherweight crown to move up to the lightweight ranks last December, stopping Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa in the 12th-round last December for the WBA "regular" crown. Santa Cruz, 37-1-1 with 19 knockouts, captured the vacated WBA title last November with a unanimous decision victory over American Miguel Flores. Now reigning champion Santa Cruz, 32, defends the crown against former holder Davis, 25, with the secondary lightweight title behind unbeaten American Teofimo Lopez also at stake. "I'm facing the best fighter in the division," Santa Cruz said. "If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. I know this is a dangerous fight for me, but I want to test myself." It's the knockout power of Davis against the endurance and dominating pressure style of Santa Cruz in a turning-point bout for both. "I have to prove I'm the baddest man in the sport," Davis said. "Leo is going to come with a lot of punches and I'm going to be explosive. "I think this performance is going to put me up to the next level." Added Santa Cruz: "We've both suffered and been through a lot to get here. Neither of us wants to go back to where we started." Spectators will be allowed into the Alamodome with masks and social distancing required. Oddsmakers established Davis as the favorite, but Santa Cruz says, "It's my job to go out there and prove the doubters wrong." If he does defeat Santa Cruz, taking the lightweight title would give the Mexican fighter a crown in a fifth different weight class for his career. "It would mean the world to me to become a five-division champion," Santa Cruz said. "No matter what, we're going to find a way to beat him." Davis isn't worried about extending a six-year, 14-fight streak of early stoppages as much as he is producing his best performance against Santa Cruz. "I don't think I have to knock him out," Davis said. "I just have to go out there and be great. I just have to go out there and show everyone I'm the top guy in the boxing world. "Leo is going to come to fight and it's just about me stepping up and doing what I do best." js/rcw
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