By Barry Holbrook: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis is coming to take the WBA super featherweight title from Leo Santa Cruz this Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) isn’t sure if Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) can hang with him in terms of talent, but if now, he’s going to get him out of there.
He’s not going to let Santa Cruz, 32, stay in the ring for the full 12 rounds if he lacks the talent. That’s how fighters get hurt, says Tank, and he’s not going to let that happen.
Santa Cruz and Davis are fighting on Showtime pay-per-view on Saturday, and they’ve got a lot of competition.
The $75 price tag for the Davis-Santa Cruz card will make it difficult for them to lure viewers away from less expensive fights on other networks on the night.
Tank says he’ll make weight
“It will not be a problem for me to make weight,” said Tank Davis to Yahoo Sports News. “I’m excited for that and I’m definitely ready.
“We know Leo will come to fight, and will come prepared. I’m not sure just yet, but whatever works for him is fine with me,” said Davis when asked if Floyd Mayweather Jr will be in his corner on Saturday night.
“I think I’m a legit 130-pounder,” Davis said. “I can get up to 135 pounds quite comfortably, but my best performance is at 130. So I think I’m a 130 fighter. It happens all the time in the sport that people go up and take risks.
“That’s part of the sport. Leo thinks he’s the best and he’s daring to be great to fight one of the best in the weight class. That’s great for him.
“I’ll for it,” said Davis when asked if he’d be interested in fighting Teofimo Lopez. “He looked up to par last Saturday. He got the job done.
“Any one of those guys, if they want to make the fight happen, we can make the fight happen. I think I’m the top dog out there. Everybody knows I’m the top dog out there. They can all like up and fight me,” said Davis.
Tank shouldn’t worry about the other lightweights in the division because he may not win Saturday’s fight with Santa Cruz. Even if Davis does win this fight, he’s going to have an awful time trying to beat IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez, Vasily Lomachenko, and Ryan Garcia.
Gervonta knows he’ll win
“I don’t know how it’ll play out, but I know it’ll be successful in the fight,” said Gervonta when asked his prediction is on the Santa Cruz match. “I know I’m coming to win.
“I’m not coming to do anything else. That’s what I train hard for. We just got to wait and see and both of us come out in great shape as far as not getting injured that bad. It’s a hurting sport and that’s what I go out there to do.
“I don’t want to keep knocking these guys out and wind up gassing myself out. I believe if someone isn’t supposed to be in the squared circle with me, then I’m not going to let them be in there with me.
“I’m going to get them out of there. That’s how people get hurt in the later rounds. If he throws too many punches, he’ll be open to many shots, and I’ll definitely be taking them,” said Davis.
With all the weight that Davis has taken off for this fight, it’s good for him to pace himself on Saturday. Davis, 25, was gassing in his last fight against Yuriorkis Gamboa last December, and that was at 135.
Gamboa wasn’t pushing a fast pace or anything, but he had Gervonta looking exhausted in the second half of the fight. Santa Cruz will likely force Davis to fight hard, because that’s the style that he likes to use in his fights.
On the condition that Davis isn’t 100% because of the weight loss, Santa Cruz has a really good chance of wearing him down to win by stoppage or decision.
Davis needs to keep the fight as slow as possible because he doesn’t know he’s going to deal with the pace that Santa Cruz sets.
Devin Haney predicting a win for Tank
“I like Leo Santa Cruz, but I just think he’s the smaller guy. I just think Tank is too big and too strong for him, but I take nothing away from Leo Santa Cruz. He’s a true champion and former four-division champion,” said Haney to Fighthub.
“I still think Tank is too much. Of course, I think I’m the best fighter in the world,” Haney said when told that his dad, Bill Haney, believes that he’ll beat Tank. I feel that I’ll beat anyone in the lightweight division, and that’s why I feel like they don’t want to face me.
“And I feel like they don’t want to settle it. I feel like Top Rank doesn’t want to settle it,” Haney said about his view that Top Rank doesn’t want to let him fight against their top lightweights to decide who the best is at 135. “They don’t want to know the mystery. They don’t want to take a chance with me.”
Having the size advantage for Davis could be a big plus against Santa Cruz, but it might not be. Santa Cruz has a good chin, and he may be able to take whatever Davis dishes out. If this fight turns out to be a war of attrition, we could see Davis get beaten down by Santa Cruz.
There have been countless fights during the history of boxing where the smaller, weaker fighter beat the stronger, bigger guy just by hanging around and throwing a lot of punches.
Davis is no different than any other fighter when it comes to taking punishment. If Santa Cruz averages 100 punches thrown per round like he often does, he’s going to do a lot of damage to Davis, who isn’t used to getting hit that much.
If Santa Cruz’s plan-A doesn’t work for him, which is to box Davis, he’s going to have to revert to his normal style of fighting by brawling. That might be his best bet for winning this fight because Davis isn’t someone that can be easily outboxed.