Lomachenko tells Mayweather: Stop hiding Gervonta Davis

By Boxing News - 12/19/2017 - Comments

Image: Lomachenko tells Mayweather: Stop hiding Gervonta Davis

By Jeff Aranow: Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) challenged promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Tuesday to stop hiding his fighter former IBF super featherweight champion Gervonta Davis (19-0, 18 KOs) from him. Lomachenko says he would have liked to have fought Mayweather, but he wants him to let him fight the 23-year-old Davis.

Davis was stripped of his International Boxing Federation 130 lb. title on August 26 when he came in overweight for his title defense against fringe contender Francisco Fonseca on the undercard of the Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Davis weighed in 2 pounds over the super featherweight limit at 132. Subsequently, his IBF title was stripped from him. Davis still ended up stopping Fonseca in the 8th round, but he lost his IBF strap anyway.

”Floyd Mayweather, it would have been an honor to fight you in your prime but I’m not talking about you. Please stop hiding your fighter,” said Lomachenko on his social media site.

Mayweather is better off waiting for the 30-year-old Lomachenko to age before he makes that fight. Davis is only 23-years-old. If Mayweather waits 8-10 years, Lomachenko will be ripe for the picking for Davis. I don’t know that Mayweather will make the fight even then. It might depend on who Lomachenko is promoted by.

It’s unclear why Lomachenko wants to fight Gervonta Davis. He’s not a world champion at this point. Lomachenko was supposed to be moving up to lightweight so he could look to face WBC 135 lb. champion Mikey Garcia, but it looks like he’s not interested in doing that.

Mayweather probably won’t make the Davis vs. Lomachenko fight. Lomachenko is with Top Rank, and that might be a situation where Mayweather won’t want to deal with them to negotiate the match. Beyond that, Davis is just starting his career out. It wouldn’t be a wise move for him to fight a guy with 396 amateur fights and 2 Olympic gold medals like Lomachenko. It’s a bad match-up for Davis. Lomachenko, 5’7”, is 1 ½” taller than the 5’5 ½” Gervonta Davis, and he would have that going for him as well as his vast amateur experience.

Lomachenko is probably wasting his time pursuing a fight against Davis. It’s not going to happen. Lomachenko is a better boxer than Gervonta Davis, and Mayweather isn’t going to make that fight anytime soon. Davis has the punching power to knockout Lomachenko if he can land one of his big shots, but it’ll be hard for him to land any f his shots due to his defense.