By Chris Williams: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis is looking good in leaked sparring video of him training for his October 24 fight against Leo Santa Cruz on Showtime pay-per-view. Davis (23-o, 22 KOs) will be moving down to 130 to fight WBA super featherweight champion Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) for his belt.
The winner of the Davis-Santa Cruz fight will hold both the WBA 130 and 135-lb titles. Besides Santa Cruz’s WBA 130lb belt is up for grabs, Gervonta’s WBA 135-pound ‘regular’ belt will be on the line.
Davis is expected to vacate the WBA super featherweight title almost immediately rather than continue to meltdown to compete in that weight class. If Tank does hold onto the title, he’ll be under a massive amount of pressure to face Shakur Stevenson, Miguel Berchelt, and Oscar Valdez. Those are all Top Rank fighters.
Davis with a quality sparring partner
In the sparring video, Davis, 25, was sparring what appeared to be a welterweight with excellent size and boxing skills. For the most part, Tank got the better of the action, but not to the extent that he did in his recent sparring session against Ivan Redkach.
Davis’ promoters at Mayweather Promotions did a great job of getting him a tp notch sparring partner that can help him prove his game. Whoever this guy is, he’s a tremendous upgrade from the last fighter Davis was seen sparring in Ivan Redckach. Davis was unable to dominate this guy as he did against Redkach.
The sparring partner in today’s video, caught Tank with a big left hook when he was trying to unload on him. Judging by Tank’s reaction to the punch, he was affected, as he backed up and got nailed by a hard body shot.
As the video ends, Tank’s sparring partner looks like he’s taking over.
There are a lot of question marks about whether the Tank can move down to 130 without being drained slightly, and weakened from the process. If Davis is less than 100% for this fight, Leo will have a shot at out-boxing him, and beating him by staying on the outside. That appears to be his game plane, as he’s not going to try and out-slug the more prominent, stronger Davis.
Gervonta will have trouble making weight
“I was kind of confused about how they were going to do that with the two titles because I know that Gervonta wants to fight at 135, and Leo is at 130 because he’s a belt-holder at 130,” said trainer Ronnie Shields to Fighthype.
“Gervonta is at 135, and I was wondering how they were going to do that. But now that they’ve clarified that it’s going to be at 130, it’s going to help Leo a lot because they both have to weigh-in at 130.
It could prove difficult for Tank to make the 130lb limit without it, at least partially weakening him. You have to factor in how Tank missed weight on his first attempt in his last fight in December of last year at 135 against Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Tank should have been able to make the 135lb limit with ease, as he was moving up to lightweight, but he didn’t. It was hard for him to make weight. Additionally, after Tank beat Gamboa by a 12th round knockout, he put on a lot of weight and looked huge.
Tank has lost a lot of weight, but it’s likely to prove difficult for him to make super featherweight without sacrificing a certain amount of power. In contrast, it won’t be hard for Santa Cruz because this is a new weight class. He just recently moved up from 126 to 130 last November.
Santa Cruz didn’t need to move up to 130, as he was still able to make 126 without problems. He’d fought at featherweight for four years from 2015 to 2019, and he never missed weight.
Tank will need to break his bad habit of dropping his gloves when fighting if he wants to beat Santa Cruz because that flaw will be taken advantage of by him.
Santa Cruz is a much better boxer than the fighters that Tank has been fighting during his career, and he’s going to be picked apart if he does that on October 24.
Santa Cruz will take more chances
“Leo is a guy that doesn’t have trouble making that weight, and Gervonta does. That’s going to make it tough for Gervonta to fight at 130 pounds. And that’s going to be tough for him.
“That’s going to make Leo feel better and make him take more chances and now that they’re coming in at 130. That’s going to be a tough fight for both of them,” Shields said.
If Santa Cruz is stronger after making weight on October 23, he’ll be able to do a lot more than Davis, and he could build up a sizable lead on him. What Davis can’t afford to do is fall behind Santa Cruz and then needs to play catch-up or require a knockout to win.
Santa Cruz has got the long reach and the ability to move around the ring if he needs to, and he’s not going to let Tank get to him with his power shots. It’s going to be interesting to see if Davis can cut off the ring enough for him to take control of the fight and possibly stop Leo.
Santa Cruz is the B-side in this fight, even though he’s defending his WBA 130lb title against Tank. He’s not as famous as him, and that could influence how the judges scored the fight. Also, Davis’ superior power will it easier for him to win rounds than it will be for the lighter-punching Santa Cruz.
Tank’s ability to cut off the ring could hurt Leo
“Gervonta is the stronger fighter, and he probably has a little bit more experience than Leo,” Shields continued. “But Leo has something that everybody wishes they had in that he can box, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a southpaw.
“It doesn’t make a difference. It depends on how Leo fights his fight. If he stays on the outside and boxes, he has a great chance, but Gervonta cuts the ring off pretty good, and he’s a body puncher too.
“So that could be lousy trouble for Leo. If Gervonta starts landing those body shots, but it’s also his total strength. Leo’s not known to be a power puncher, but he’s a good boxer.
They tell me don’t do it but I’m still approaching, I’m fully focused..I don’t feel emotions! OCT.24 #PPV #TheONE pic.twitter.com/SpmBo8KmVG
— Gervonta Davis (@Gervontaa) August 8, 2020
That’s the reason why he’s won four titles. So it’s a tough fight. Again, all the intangibles have to fall in place for each guy. Honestly, I can’t pick a winner just right now,” said Shields.
Santa Cruz moves well, but he’s never shown the ability to move nonstop in a fight, and he’s going to need to do that for him to have a shot at beating Tank.