By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says Floyd Mayweather Jr. called his company and spoke Todd duBeof recently about wanting to put together a fight between his fighter super featherweight Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Vasyl Lomachenko.
Arum says he thinks Mayweather was mad at Davis, and he wanted to see him get beaten by Lomachenko. The fight never materialized though, and Davis, 23, has since captured the vacant WBA Super World super featherweight title with a 3rd round knockout victory over former WBA 126lb champion Jesus Andres Cuellar (28-3, 21 KOs) last month on April 21 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
“I mean…I think you should ask Floyd. Floyd called Todd [duBueof] and I think he was pissed off at Davis and he wanted to see David destroyed,” Arum said to Fighthype.com.
With the way that Lomanchenko (11-1, 9 KOs) had problems beating WBA World lightweight champion Jorge Linares (44-4, 27 KOs) last Saturday night in their fight on ESPN, ‘Tank’ Davis would have had a real shot at beating the 2-time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine. You can’t rule out a victory at all for Davis against Lomacnenko, because he’s younger, bigger, stronger and faster than Linares. I would favor Davis to beat Linares if that fight were to happen. Davis is a mean puncher with either hand, and he’s young and fast. I could see Davis knocking Linares out well before the 10th round.
Some boxing fans blame Lomachenko’s 6th round knockdown by Linares as him being careless by walking into the shot with his guard down. I don’t think that’s the case. Linares was hitting Lomachenko in every single round of the fight with lefts and rights, and there was nothing he could do about it but take the shots. Lomachenko was trying his hardest to be cute, using his head movement and trying to showboat, but Linares wasn’t falling for that junk like the limited fighters that the Top Rank fighter had been beating previously.
Linares stayed calm and kept nailing Lomachenko with shots down the middle. Lomachenko was forced to take a lot of shots before he eventually knocked Linares out with a left to the body in round 10. Davis is a much bigger puncher than Linares, and he’s faster, much faster. While Linares, 5’8”, is 2 ½” taller with a 2 inch reach advantage over Tank Davis, it’s not enough of a size advantage to keep him from getting knocked out by him. Davis would be a real problem for both Lomachenko and Linares. I wouldn’t be surprised if he beats both. Lomachenko is starting to look old. If he keeps taking punishment like he did against Linares, he’s not going to last too much longer.
Lomachenko will be fighting next on August 25 against an opponent still to be determined on ESPN at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Arum says Lomachenko could be facing WBO lightweight champion Ray Beltran in a unification fight. Arum remarked that trying to put together a fight between Lomachenko and WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia could prove to be just as difficult as putting together the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight. It took Arum six years to make that fight.
Davis is probably going to wait a few years before he goes after Lomachenko. If Davis keeps getting better, he could be a problem for Lomachenko by 2021. That doesn’t mean the Lomachenko vs. Davis fight will get made. If Lomachenko is starting to show signs of fading, it’s possible that Arum will drag his feet when it comes time to put that fight together. Right now, Arum would gladly make the Lomachenko-Davis fight, because Lomachenko is still in his prime. But three years from now, Lomachenko could be showing signs of ring wear and he might be vulnerable.
Linares wants to stay at lightweight, and thinks there are a lot of guys for him to fight. The reality is there isn’t a lot of top guys for Lomachenko to fight at 135. The division is basically barren once you get past these fighters: Linares, Mikey Garcia, Robert Easter Jr., Ray Beltran, Luke Campbell and Yvan Mendy. There are six good fighters at lightweight, and only one of them with the potential to possibly beat Lomachenko in Mikey Garcia.
Now if Lomachenko moves up to 140, then there are a number of guys that could give him real problems, such as Regis Prograis, Jose Ramirez, Kiryl Relikh, Viktor Postol, Terry Flanagan and Sergey Lipinets. I suspect Lomachenko now knows his limitations after his fight with Linares last Saturday, so I don’t see him moving up to light welterweight and tangling with any of those aforementioned fighters.
Arum doesn’t sound worried about Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn’s new $1 billion deal with streaming service DAZN for 16 fights per year in the U.S. Arum sees it as a good thing that will help boxing grow.
“Eddie Hearn is going to put boxing on with Da Zone in the United States, 16 fights, isn’t that great? Arum said to Fighthype. There’s more boxing, more of these kids get work. I want everybody to put shows on. It’s terrific. And the fact that he has a lot of money to do it means that he should have quality and that’s great. It’s not a zero sum game here. Showtime has put on some great fights this year. Great! We put on great fights. Great. It only helps boxing,” Arum said.
With the money that Hearn has from DAZN, he could use that to lure a lot of American fighters into his Matchroom Boxing stable. Hopefully for Arum’s sake, he doesn’t wind up losing any of his Top Rank stable fighters to Hearn’s company. Hearn is targeting a lot of popular American fighters that are under the promotional banner of Golden Boy or Top Rank. Hearn says he wants to become the No.1 promoter in U.S boxing. We’ll see if he can do that. The $1 billion that Hearn has to play with could wind up going quickly if he spends huge chunks of it on fighters like Errol Spence Jr., Adrien Broner, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia and the Charlo brothers. Hearn should be smart and not throw money away on fighters that don’t have a good long term outlook to their careers. Broner seems to be fading, and Danny Garcia’s career outlook isn’t that bright either.
