By Chris Williams: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (22-0, 21 KOs) has vacated his WBA super featherweight title, and will be moving up to lightweight. This is a timely move on the part of the 24-year-old Davis, as Vasiliy Lomachenko is talking of wanting to vacate his 135-lb titles as soon as he adds the IBF strap to his collection in early 2020.
Lomachenko will need to stay at 135 if he wants Davis
In Loma moving back down to 130, he’ll be missing out on facing Davis with him coming up to 135. Davis is easily the biggest fight that would have been available to Lomachenko in moving down. It now it looks like Lomachenko will be moving down for nothing. He can fight these guys at super featherweight: Miguel Berchelt, Oscar Valdez, Andrew Cancio and Tevin Farmer. None of those guys are big names, and Lomachenko won’t increase his star power in facing them.
It would be best for Lomachenko to stand pat where he’s at in the lightweight division. The only way Lomachenko can face Davis is by staying at 135, and not moving away from him. It not be doable for a fight to be made between Loma and Davis, because it would require Top Rank to work with Mayweather Promotions. If Lomachenko insists on being the A-side against Tank Davis, that would be a deal killer. Even a 50-50 split might not get the job done, because Davis’ star power is sky rocketing right now, whereas Lomachenko’s seems to be stuck in neutral.
❌👑 Gervonta Davis has vacated his WBA super-featherweight title and will be moving up to lightweight, according to the new WBA rankings. He’s now listed as the #1 contender in the 135lbs division, with Yuriorkis Gamboa bumped up to #2. Vacant WBA ‘regular’ title fight, perhaps?
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) September 1, 2019
Gervonta immediately becomes #1 guy at 135
Davis is about to be the new star at lightweight by default, and there won’t be anyone to slow his path. The first order of business will be for Davis to go after the WBA belt. A fight against Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-2, 18 KOs) would be huge for Davis. There would be a great deal of fan interest in a clash between him and Gamboa. That fight might even be bigger than a match between Davis and Lomachenko. The reason for that is Lomachenko hasn’t been able to win over fans in the U.S despite getting a huge push by ESPN and Top Rank. Gamboa has turned his career around with four straight wins
Tevin Farmer misses out on Gervonta Davis fight
IBF 135-lb champion Tevin Farmer will be missing out on the Davis fight now that he’s moving up in weight. In hindsight, Farmer should have agreed to the $2 million offer made to him by Mayweather Promotions to fight Davis. Farmer isn’t going to make that kind of money defending against Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz Jr. or against any of the other contenders in the weight class.