By Barry Holbrook: WBA Super World super featherweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (22-0, 21 KOs) paved his way to his first pay-per-view fight by stopping mandatory challenger Ricardo Núñez (21-3, 19 KOs) in the second round last Saturday night to potentially setup a unification match against IBF champion Tevin Farmer later this year.
‘Tank’ Davis’ promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr. revealed after the fight that his goal for Gervonta is to return to the ring in three to four months to battle Farmer (30-4-1, 6 KOs) in the first of what he hopes is many pay-per-view bouts to come. However, Mayweather isn’t certain that the Davis vs. Farmer fight can be made at this time. As such, he says a match between Gervonta and former WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-2, 18 KOs) is a fight that would be looking to make instead if the Farmer unification match doesn’t come to fruition.
Fighting in front of 14,686 fans, Davis, 24, dispatched Nunez in a second round knockout on SHOWTIME World Championship Boxing at the Royal Farms arena in Baltimore., Maryland.
Tevin Farmer impressive beating Guillaume Frenois
For his part, Farmer defeated challenger Guillaume Frenois (46-2-1, 12 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the College Park Center, in Arlington, Texas. The scores were 116-111, 119-108 and 116-111.
“Me and him have had a build up for so long,” said Gervonta at the post-fight news conference last Saturday night in talking about Tevin Farmer. “I think it’s great for the sport. I really don’t like him, to be honest.”
With all the back and forth trash talking that’s gone on between Davis and Farmer, it’s long passed the time for them to fight. Davis’ popularity is arguably being stultified by him defending against lesser fighters like Nunez, Hugo Ruiz, Jesus Cuellar, Francisco Fonseca and Liam Walsh.
Gervonta should talk about himself for P-4-P list says Mayweather
“I’m going to keep pushing him to get better,” said Mayweather about Gervonta Davis in talking at the post-fight news conference last Saturday night following Tank’s two-round demolition job of Ricardo Nunez. “Sometimes he don’t want to listen. Tank, talk about yourself for the pound-for-pound . Talk about you being the most exciting fighter in boxing. You keep staying positive. I’m proud of you, and Mayweather will keep backing you. Adrien Broner brought Tank to me when he was a kid. I have to say thank you to Adrien. He was the one that brought Tank to me.”
Gervonta can’t talk about himself as a pound-for-pound fighter with the boxing public, because the opposition that Mayweather Promotions has been liming him up against doesn’t give himself any argument to make. Davis can’t tell the fans that he deserves to be #1 pound-for-pound with him being lesser guys like Nunez, Cuellar, Fonseca, Walsh and Ruiz.
Mayweather needs to step it up for Davis put matching him against these guys:
- Tevin Farmer
- Gary Russell Jr.
- Miguel Berchelt
- Vasiliy Lomachenko
- Teofimo Lopez
- Joseph Diaz
- Jamel Herring
- Andrew Cancio.
Adrien Broner brought Tank Davis to Mayweather
“It is what it is. I just want the best for my little brother,” said Adrien Broner when asked about his reaction to Mayweather telling the media that he’s the one that brought Tank Davis to Mayweather Promotions’ boss Floyd. “He’s doing his thing.”
Broner should be given a lot of credit for bringing a gem like Gervonta to Mayweather, because that gives him his first and thus far only potential superstar. The criticism that Mayweather gets from fans is he hasn’t done anything with Gervonta to make him a household name in the last six years of his career. Although Gervonta has captured two world titles at super featherweight, he hasn’t fought any of the talented guys in the division.
Gary Russell Jr. not on Gervonta Davis’ radar says Mayweather
“Gary Russell is a solid opponent, but I don’t think Gary Russell is fighting at 130 at this point in time,” said Mayweather in taking over for Davis at the podium when he was asked if he’d be interested in fighting Russell. “So when Gary Russell moves up 130, and is making some noise, if ‘Tank’ hasn’t moved up to 135, anything is possible down the line.’
It’s too bad that Mayweather isn’t showing interest in matching David against Gary Russell Jr. (30-1, 18 KOs), because that’s a fight that could easily be made. Russell’s management would likely be more than happy to make a fight with the young Gervonta, but Mayweather isn’t even considering it. There’s no desire on Mayweather’s part in making that match happen. Is it fear? Does Mayweather think Gervonta isn’t ready to face the 31-year-old Russell Jr?
The goal is to put Gervonta Davis vs. Tevin Farmer on pay-per-view
“At this point in time, we’re looking forward to a unification bout or maybe Tank vs. Gamboa. But right now, we want Tevin Farmer,” said Mayweather. “The belt that Tevin has, Tank is actually still the IBF world champion AND the WBA champion. So, we’re going to take that belt back home. That’s what we’re going to do. The ultimate goal is to turn the kid into a Pay-Per-View star.
When the Tevin Farmer vs. Tank fight happens, we’ll look forward to our first stop at pay-per-view. We don’t know how many homes we’re going to do, but Tank’s fan base is growing. That’ll be Tank’s coming out party on pay-per-view, and I’m pretty sure he can do some great numbers. We’ve always believed in our fighters. I’m pretty sure Tevin Farmer’s team believes in him. So that’ll be our coming out party. In our next fight, we’re looking forward to do pay-per-view,” said Mayweather.
Mayweather should skip the Davis-Gamboa fight, and go straight into a match between Gervonta and Davis. That fight might not sell though on pay-per-view, because Farmer isn’t a headliner fight, and Davis has been fighting obscure opposition. At this point in Farmer’s career, hes still an undercard fighter, and that’s bad news when it comes to pay-per-view. The guys that advance to PPV are fighters that are involved in main event fights, and Farmer hasn’t been doing that. If Davis is going to fight Farmer next, he needs to have it on regular Showtime. Farmer needs to start headlining his own fights on DAZN so that the casual boxing fans can find out who he is. He looked bad last Saturday night in beating Frenois in a boring fight.
Gervonta pleased with crowd size for Ricardo Nunez fight
“It was actually bigger than I thought it would be. It was a great turnout,” said Gervonta when asked about the large crowd that showed up to watch him fight Nunez at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore. I believe both fighters want it,” said Davis in talking about Tevin Farmer. “I’m not really sure if he wants it or if he’s just talking, and wants the money. But we’ve been going back and forth on social media for two years now. I think it’s time. The time for me is now,” said Tank Davis.
Gervonta can bring in big crowds in his hometown of Baltimore. With the kind of numbers Davis brought, he might want to stay in that city for the duration of his career. If all Mayweather is going to do is match Gervonta against guys like Nunez, Cuellar and Ruiz, then he should stay in Baltimore where he an bring in large crowds no matter who he faces.
Tank Davis to soon be selling out arenas worldwide says Floyd
“If he keeps going out there and performing like he’s been performing, he’s eventually going to be in Vegas doing what I did,” said promoter Mayweather about Tank Davis. “All he’s got to do is keep winning, and stay focused, and soon he’ll be selling out arenas all over the world. That’s the ultimate goal. I just want to put him in the best possible position he can be in so we can continue to win and move forward in the sport. It’s about taking chances and rolling the dice with me. I could have had fights on pay-per-view a long time ago,” said Mayweather in talking about his own career.
Gervonta has a lot of boxing fans, but he needs to be put in with someone like Lomachenko, and that he can beat a guy like that for him to become a big ticket seller worldwide.
Mayweather says his former promoter didn’t believe in him
“I had a promoter that didn’t believe in me, and I had a promoter that put me on the back-burner,” said Mayweather. “But, I never cried. I said, ‘continue to put them in front of me, and I’ll beat those fighters. Eventually the world will see, and eventually I’ll be a household name.’ It took time, but once I got away from my promoter Top Rank. The best thing for my career was to get away from Top Rank. Once I got out of Top Rank, I bought myself out of the contract with Top Rank for $750,000. Just away from them in three fights, I made $750 million. I made the best move for my career,” said Mayweather.
Mayweather took over Gervonta’s news conference last Saturday, and veered off course in making it about him instead of his young fighter. When Mayweather started to talk about his own career with his former promoters Top Rank, Davis was left standing next time being ignored on his own night. The idea is to use the press conferences to build Gervonta into a star, not for Mayweather to commandeer them and go on a rant about his former promoter.
Tank Davis being groomed to surpass Mayweather
“The ultimate goal is to put him [Tank Davis] it. If I can continue to push this young kid to surpass me, I’m going to continue to push him, as long as I’m a part of it,” said Mayweather. “Adrien Broner brought him to my gym. I seen that he had a mean streak in him when he was boxing. I said, ‘you know what, there’s something about this kid that I can take him and he’ll be a world champion within a couple of years if we can get together and brainstorm. He’s got the power, and he’s got the boxing skills, but he had the right mindset. I had to help him. He’s not even 25-years-old, and he’s already a two-time world champion,” said Mayweather.
What we don’t want to see is Gervonta being left to stall out his career fighting mediocre fighters, and have nothing to show for his best years in the sport. Mayweather is arguably matching Davis too weakly at this point to further his career. For example, the guy that they wanted to match Gervonta against recently was Abner Mares, a fighter that is completely over-the-hill.
Gamboa is in the same boat. He was at one time a good fighter, but he’s done nothing with his career since 2011. Once Gamboa moved out of the featherweight division, his career has gone nowhere, and he’s had a lot of downtime with inactivity. Mayweather should be looking to match Gervonta against Farmer, Miguel Berchelt, Jamal Herring, Joseph Diaz, or Andrew Cancio.
Gervonta’s next fight expected to be on PPV in 3 to 4 months
“We look forward to him getting right back in there in a few months,” said Mayweather. “Hopefully, three or four months, and hopefully it’s on pay-per-view. We can’t wait for Tevin. So we got to keep him active, and keep him busy,” said Mayweather about wanting to keep Gervonta busy fighting. “Today, the guy that Tank fought [Ricardo Nunez], he was a hell of a puncher. I told Tank; he listened and went out there and got the job done, and he couldn’t have done it in a better place in Baltimore,” said Mayweather.
It’s good that Mayweather wants to bring Davis back in three to four months, but that depends on who he matches him against. The fact that he’s looking to bring Davis back so soon suggests that he’s planning on putting him in with Gamboa, and not Farmer.
“I don’t care, as long as we make the fight happen. I’m willing to do it,” said Gervonta about the Tevin Farmer fight.