Ivan Redkach LECTURES Tank Davis, says he left after 4 rounds

By Boxing News - 07/11/2020 - Comments

By Allan Fox: In what some boxing fans feel is a classless move, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis posted a video clip on social media of him hammering his sparring partner Ivan Redkach in front of his cheering team on Friday night.

Redkach complained afterward that Davis’ manager said NO video recording of the session, but then Tank posts video of a clip of the sparring on his Twitter, which was an unprofessional move.

Why didn’t Tank’s trainer stop him from brawling?

One other question is, why didn’t Tank Davis’s trainer step in to control what was going on in the sparring session? Tank looked like he wasn’t working on any part of his technical game. Also, Tank’s trainer should have stopped the action to tell him to stop throwing rabbit punches to the back of Redkach’s head.

Gervonta needs to control his rabbit punching

Gervonta can’t use rabbit punching in a professional fight unless it’s a referee is just standing around, clueless on how to officiate a match. When you’re training, you want to develop good habits.

If a trainer sees their fighters continually fouling their sparring partners, then they could stop them because this kind of thing can become a habit. Tank can’t get accustomed to being allowed to land rabbit shots in training because he’ll be in shock when those same punches result in him being warned and docked points in his fights.

YouTube video

It would be sad if Tank winds up fouling out when he faces Leo Santa Cruz due to his rabbit punching. In training camp, fighters are supposed to develop good habits. If a guy is using lousy form, it’s the coach’s job to correct that. We didn’t see any of that going on during the sparring clip that Tank uploaded. It looked like pure anarchy inside the ring. The only one of the two that resembled a professional fighter was Redkach.

Redkach also didn’t like how Tank Davis bailed after four rounds instead of staying the full six that had been agreed on. Was Davis tired? After seeing Redkach’s message on social media, pointing out that he had taken off after four rounds, Tank Davis challenged him to come back to his gym this Monday, and he’ll spar 6, 8, or 10 rounds.

Will Redkach return for sparring with Davis on Monday?

It’ll be interesting to find out if Redkach returns and, more importantly, if Davis once again videotapes the sparring session, edits it, and uploads it once again on social media.

Redkach didn’t like that Tank uploaded edited video of him looking good but then didn’t include the other parts of the four rounds that didn’t go his way. Only Davis knows why he left after four rounds instead of six, but you can imagine he was winded and perhaps not capable of going six rounds without getting worked over by Redkach.

The posted video showed a pudgy-looking Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) blasting away at the bigger Redkach (23-5-1, 18 KOs), who was trying his best to cover up. Sadly, many of the shots that Tank Davis landed in the clip were illegal rabbit punches.

Image: Ivan Redkach LECTURES Tank Davis, says he left after 4 rounds

Whoever edited the video of the sparring, failed to make Tank look good. If it had been edited carefully, fans would have seen Tank landing legal shots and not repeated punches to the back of Redkach’s head.

Redkach revealed afterward that Tank had taken off after four rounds instead of staying the full six. Ivan also reminded Tank that sparring isn’t “fighting,” and the object is to learn from it.

“If I am not mistaken your manager prohibited video recording. Maybe he was right, otherwise, your fans would see the real sparring session not this last 30 seconds of the 4th round…. out of 6,” said Redkach.

Was Gervonta’s objective to embarrass Redkach?

Tank’s posting video of the sparring clip gives some fans the impression that he was trying to embarrass Redkach. Why would Tank do that? If you’re a sparring partner for Tank Davis, do you want it to be put on video, edited, and then uploaded to make him look good?

If this is going to be a routine for Tank during his training camp, he might have problems getting sparring partners to agree to train with him. It would be one thing if Redkach were a world champion, and Gervonta filmed the sparring and then quickly edited it to show his good moments and then uploaded it on social media.

Tank needs to put himself in Redkach’s shoes and realize that he’s a sparring partner, he’s not a world champion. If Davis could empathize with Redkach, he would feel less of a need to want to post video clips of their sparring sessions.

But Redkach is a fringe contender coming off of a loss to Danny Garcia. Additionally, if you’re going to post sparring video, you should post all of it rather than only the portions where you look good.

“Sparring session is not a fight,” Redkach continued. “This is a time when we can learn from each other and practice our knowledge. You left after four rounds and didn’t even say goodbye,” said Redkach to Gervonta Davis.

Does Tank not realize what sparring is designed for?

The Ukrainian Redkach is right about the objective of sparring. It’s not to fight your opponent and try and knock them out in front of your cheering team or entourage.

Image: Ivan Redkach LECTURES Tank Davis, says he left after 4 rounds

You’re supposed to be working on technical aspects of your game, and not trying to score a knockout so that you look good in front of your friends, team and the fans. Davis is losing sight of what the objective is behind sparring. The idea isn’t to try and score a quick knockout so that you can be adored and celebrated.

Perhaps one plausible explanation of why Davis looked like he was trying so hard to knockout Redkach is because he might have wanted to end the session as early as possible.

With Davis’ body looking 15 to 20 pounds overweight, the sparring could have been hard on him. If you’ve got someone that doesn’t want to work hard because they’re out of shape, then they’ll cut corners in training by trying to get it over with rather than sticking it out and dealing with the pain and exhaustion.

Tank needs to follow Lomachenko’s example

If Gervonta had been able to knockout Redkach in rounds one through four, he could have gone home without exhausting himself and potentially looking bad in front of his team, friends of whoever was there cheering him.

But Redkach wasn’t going to get knocked out last Friday, and it’s possible that Tank was too tired after four rounds to continue at the pace he’d been fighting. Some of the uppercuts that Redkach was landing were doing damage.

During one sequence, Redkach hit Davis with four consecutive uppercuts that landed flush to his head. Now imagine Davis getting hit with those same shots when he’s dog tired in rounds five and six. Would Tank have been able to absorb them without hitting the deck, and embarrassing himself in front of his team/friends/entourage?

Image: Ivan Redkach LECTURES Tank Davis, says he left after 4 rounds

“If you have a desire to come to the gym, I’ll show you good sparring again just not as an amateur four round. I am ready for 6-8-10 rounds,” said Tank Davis in replying to Ivan Redkach. “Don’t be afraid. Come on Monday. I will wait for you. See you Monday?” said Tank Davis.

Davis asking for trouble in 10 round session

There’s a perfect chance that Redkach will return on Monday to spar Tank once again, but it could be a different story if it goes ten rounds. However, it’s doubtful that Tank will agree to a sparring session that long.

Tank is carrying around a lot of excess baggage on his short frame, and he might run out of gas and get beaten up by Redkach in a 10 round fight. The natural size advantage of Redkach will start coming into play.

That’s a normal thing that happens when you put a small guy in with a tremendous fighter. The shorter guy does well early, but then the size of the more tremendous fighter leads to them dominating.

An example of that is the Julian Jackson vs. Terry Norris fight. Norris looked great in the first round, but then Jackson’s size and power took over, and he knocked Norris out cold in round two.

Davis has a long way to go before he’s ready for the likes of Vasily Lomachenko. Fighters like Loma work on their technical game in sparring. He doesn’t try and knockout out his sparring partners and then quickly upload the video on social media so he can be celebrated.

Lomachenko would likely have great disdain for someone that does that kind of thing because it’s an unprofessional move.