By Dan Ambrose: WBA Super World super featherweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (20-0, 19 KOs) will be facing replacement opponent Hugo Ruiz (39-4, 33 KOs) in six days from now next Saturday, February 9 on SHOWTIME at the Dignity Health Sports Park, in Carson, California.
Davis, 24, was supposed to be facing Abner Mares, but he pulled out of the fight after suffering a detached retina of his left eye.
Davis vs. Ruiz will be taking place this Saturday on SHOWTIME at 10:00 p.m. ET. The undercard has the following fights:
– Javier Fortuna vs. Sharif Bogere
– Mario Barrios vs. Richard Zamora
– Erickson Lubin vs. Ishe Smith
– Juan Heraldez vs. Eddie Ramirez
– Xavier Martinez vs. Deivi Julio Bassa
Davis says he still would still like to face Mares, 33, later on this year if possible. Davis doesn’t mind facing Ruiz instead though, because he feels he’s a bigger puncher than Mares, and that should make it interesting for as long as the fight lasts.
Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe said Ruiz was the best available opponent they could find that was willing to step in on short notice to challenge Gervonta for his WBA 130 lb title. Ellerbe doesn’t say it, but obviously the were’t going to find a replacement that was overly talented, since that would make it next to impossible for Gervonta to prepare for him adequately on short notice. Even though Davis is highly talented and one of the best fighters in super featherweight division, it’s still a hardship for him to take on a guy that he’s not prepared for for a full eight-week camp.
“I believe that he’s stronger because look at his knockout ratio,” Gervonta said of the 32-year-old former WBC super bantamweight champion Ruiz. “He’s 39 and 4 with 33 knockouts. That had to play a big part. And I didn’t even know he was coming up from 126. I didn’t know that. I just knew that they gave me a new opponent. I didn’t know who he was, I’m just excited for February 9.”
6 DAYS AWAY #TheONE 🦍 #pleasedontcallme #Imstillsleep pic.twitter.com/1F14FEJjsh
— Gervonta Davis (@Gervontaa) February 3, 2019
Ruiz held the World Boxing Council 122 lb title in 2016. He lost in the same year to the big punching Hozumi Hasegawa. Since that fight, Ruiz hasn’t done much in winning his last three fights against obscure opposition. Ruiz didn’t fight in 2017, and then came back and fought twice in 2018 and once in 2019.
“Hopefully he will be okay and we’ll get another shot at fighting him sometime in 2019 but my main focus is on February 9 and on my new opponent,” Davis said about Mares.
It might be a waste of time for Gervonta to try and reschedule the Mares fight. Gervonta needs to fight younger guys that can be counted on to make it to the fight, and preferably fighters from his own weight class at super featherweight. It’s not going to do Davis any good if he’s going to be fighting featherweights that are coming off of a loss like Mares, who was beaten in his previous fight by Leo Santa Cruz. If Davis wants to fight a featherweight, then he should face Santa Cruz rather than the guy that he just beat for the second time.