By Dan Ambrose: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis reacted on social media on Thursday to Leo Santa Cruz in spilling the news that their fight is “100% certain” to be taking place next at 130 pounds.
Davis-Santa Cruz is heading towards Showtime pay-per-view in the last quarter of 2020. The two were previously supposed to be fighting this summer, but the pandemic spoiled those plans. Whether boxing fans will have the money to order this fight on PPV is the big question.
If the economy is still in dire shape by the fall, then this is going to fight is going to be a dismal failure. In boxing, timing is everything. Ideally, if you’re going to sell Santa Cruz vs. Davis on pay-per-view, you need to do it when people are working, and not struggling financially.
This could prove to be impossible for Tank Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) to make weight for the fight because he’s struggling as it is to make the lightweight limit at 135.
Not a good time for pay-per-view
The weight is just one problem confronting the Davis-Santa Cruz fight, and it’s going to be an issue for this match-up. What is even more of a hitch is the idea of selling the Davis vs. Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) fight on pay-per-view. This is NOT a PPV-worthy fight in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans, especially with it coming on the back of pandemic.
Fans don’t have $80 to throw away on this fight, and it’s reasonable to assume that they won’t bother ordering it. You know what that means. Only a small percentage of the fans will bother [purchasing the fight. The rest will either ignore it or find an alternative way of seeing it for free.
If Santa Cruz showed that he could beat the best fighters at 130, then maybe later on down the road a fight on pay-per-view against Tank Davis would make sense. But as of now, Santa Cruz is starting to look he’s on the decline and a paper champion.
“There you have it see y’all in fall,” said Tank Davis on his Twitter about him fighting Santa Cruz next at super featherweight.
It would make sense for Santa Cruz vs. Davis to be sold on pay-per-view if these two fighters had a larger following. Tank hasn’t fought any of the big names during his career, as he’s been fighting the level of opposition that young lightweight Ryan Garcia has.
Santa Cruz looked POOR against Miguel Flores
Although Santa Cruz has captured world titles in three divisions, he’s still not a huge name. More importantly, Santa Cruz has fought just once since moving up to 130, and he looked terrible against Miguel Flores last November.
Santa Cruz had to battle hard to beat Flores by a close 12 round decision. This is the same Flores that Chris Avalos and Dat Nguyen both beat in 2017. The way that Santa Cruz struggled in his first fight at super featherweight against Flores suggests that he’s hit his ceiling in a big way.
Santa Cruz isn’t the same fighter at 130 that he was at 118, 122, and 126. He’s not even close to the same guy. Right now, Santa Cruz looks like a shell of the fighter he once was at 118 and 122. Putting Santa Cruz in with Davis is not a good idea unless this is a cash-out type of fight. If you’re going to cash out, you don’t want to do it right now. That’s just plain foolish.
A lot of boxing fans think Santa Cruz has been avoiding WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. for years now. Russell Jr. made it known years ago that he wants to fight Santa Cruz, and yet he’s not done anything to try and make it happen.
