By Allan Fox: Teofimo Lopez has severe doubts about whether Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis will make weight for his October 24 fight against Leo Santa Cruz at 130. WBA ‘regular’ 135-pound champ Davis (23-0, 22 KOs), who has been looking swelled up lately, appeared to be in the 160s in his sparring with Ivan Redkach.
Davis and Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) will be meeting on October 24 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. The fight will be televised on Showtime pay-per-view.
IBF lightweight champion Teofimo (15-0, 12 KOs), a fighter that takes pride in his conditioning, went after Tank Davis on social media in calling him “fat” and betting his world title that he “WON’T’ make weight for the Santa Cruz fight.
Tank Davis already having problems making 135lb limit
The weight limit for Davis-Santa Cruz is at super featherweight [130 pounds], and that’s a division that Tank left last year due to his problems getting down to the limit. Tank has since moved up to 135, and he barely weighed in at the ceiling for his December clash against Yuriorkis Gamboa.
In the first weigh-in attempt, Davis, not surprisingly, came in over the limit. But despite that, Davis, 25, was able to go back an hour later and make weight at 134 1/2 lbs. Nevertheless, it was a terrible start for Gervonta to be already struggling to make the lightweight limit in his first fight in the division.
You would think that Davis would have been able to make the 135lb limit with ease, given that it was a higher class with an extra five pounds of cushion from the 130lb division that he’d just left.
“Yo Tank, if you watching this, why you so f***** fat, bro?” Teofimo said to Davis on Instagram on Thursday. “I know food is life and s*** but you don’t got to get that f**** fat. Do you know what I mean?
“Tank won’t make the weight for the Leo Santa Cruz fight. I bet you my world title,” Teofimo said.
There’s not much Tank Davis can say to defend himself to these comments from Teofimo, as what he says is true. Davis is too fat for his own good, and he’s not taking his career seriously by staying in shape in between fights.
Gervonta could eat his way out of the lightweight division
With the constant swings with Gervonta’s physique, it’s only a matter of time before he’s forced to move up to 140. Sure, Davis will probably find success in the light welterweight division as well, but it won’t be nearly as easy as it’s been at 130 and 135. Davis will be getting hit a lot more by fighters that in some cases are 5’10”.
In Tank’s last fight against 38-year-old Gamboa, he got hit a lot, and that was against a guy with only one good leg. Yuriorkis tore his right Achilles tendon in round two, and he was limping around the ring for the remainder of the clash.
It becomes increasingly harder for fighters to make weight when they gain 20 or more pounds in between fights. The body eventually reaches a new set point at a higher limit, and it makes it impossible for a fighter to return to their own weight class.
That’s why so many of the fighters in boxing are forced to continually move up to higher with classes as they get older. It’s not just that their metabolism is slowing.
Tyson was his own worst enemy by living it up, eating like a pig in between fights, and putting on massive amounts of weight. Tyson Fury is an excellent example of that. Earlier in Fury’s career, he used to routinely overweight in between fights, and he’d put on a massive amount of weight.
Tyson’s lousy habit of ballooning up in weight finally reached a tipping point after his win over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. Fury ate himself close to 400 pounds and was out of boing for close to three years.
Teofimo: Gervonta doesn’t look like he’ll make weight
“I ain’t going to lie, though, he looked like he was 160, 170 when he was fighting with Ivan (Redkach),” Teofimo said about the sparing session between the two.“He look mad heavy, yo. He don’t look like he could make this weight no more. I swear,” Teofimo added.
In a Tweet this week, Tank vowed to work hard in training camp to get ready for the Santa Cruz fight. Davis knows that the spotlight is on him for this fight, and if he fails to make the 130-lb limit, he’s going to be slammed by the boxing fans.
Additionally, Tank will likely need to pay a large portion of his purse if he comes in overweight due to a weight penalty. Nothing has been said about whether there’s a weight penalty for the Davis-Santa Cruz fight, but you have to imagine there is one included.
If Tank’s friends are eating unhealthy foods, it’s going to be difficult for him to resist doing the same things as them. His friends are not world champion boxers, and they live in a different situation in their lives. In other words, they can afford to eat whatever they want because they don’t need to make weight.
“Hang it up..stopping all plans,” said Tank Davis on a Tweet about the WBA ‘regular’ 135, WBA ‘regular’ 130 and WBA ‘Super’ 130-pound titles being on the line for Santa Cruz fight.
I promise to give my all in camp and promise to go even harder in the fight. https://t.co/qH3vHNulb9
— Gervonta Davis (@Gervontaa) July 23, 2020
Can Davis turn over a new leaf?
Perhaps Davis will make weight for the Santa Cruz fight, and he could still smash the weaker fighter with his power and size. Davis is the much younger fighter than the 31-year-old Santa Cruz, and he has the size and power advantage.
It would surprise everyone if Davis turned over a new leaf and began training year round, watching what he eats. For Davis to do that, he would need to have the people around him, reminding him to take care of himself.
Given that Davis has been getting big in between fights since he turned professional in 2013, the odds are against him changing his ways. Coming events cast their shadows before, and Davis will likely stick with his same habits for the remainder of his career, unfortunately.
That’s why it’s only a matter of time before Davis winds up needing to move up to 140, 147 and 154. I can’t imagine Davis eating his way to 160, but you can’t rule that out either. To change Davis’ pattern, he’ll need to get a dietician that is with him 24/7, cooking and planning his meals.
That’s not going to help Davis t get motivated to go to the gym daily in between fights. For Davis to be pressured into staying in the gym, it’ll require that his management give him the motivation to train every day.
Perhaps if Davis’ management made it an incentive for him to train in between fights by setting it up to where he can earn more money if he stays in shape, then maybe he might want to take that step. Nevertheless, Davis is already getting a lot of money for each fight, and it would likely require a considerable incentive to motivate him enough to stay in the gym and watch what he eats.