By Allan Fox: Gary Russell Jr says he saw weakness in Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis last Saturday night with the hard time he had beating WBA super featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz in their fight on Halloween in San Antonio, Texas.
Speaking on Instagram, WBC featherweight champion Russell (31-1,18 KOs) made it known that he wants to face Tank (24-0, 23 KOs) next, and he says he was “licking his chops” watching him struggle to beat Santa Cruz (37-2-1, 19 KOs).
Davis didn’t impress against Santa Cruz
Although Davis, 25, did eventually score a sixth-round knockout of Santa Cruz, it wasn’t an easy fight by any stretch of the imagination. According to Russell, Davis was lucky to get the win.
With the way that Davis is being matched by his promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr, he probably won’t take an interest in a fight with Russell Jr. He’s too talented, and it wouldn’t be a sure thing victory like some of the fights that we’ve seen Tank in lately.
The 5’4 1/2″ Russell is close to the same height as the 5’5 1/2″ Tank Davis, and there wouldn’t be a huge size disparity between them. Davis would likely outweigh Russell by 15 to 20 pounds on the night of the fight, but that might not help him if he fights the way he did against Santa Cruz.
Tank was exposed by Santa Cruz just like he was fighting against the injured Yuriorkis Gamboa last December. Gamboa fought Davis with an injured Achilles from the second round and lasted until the twelfth before he finally stopped him.
Russell has been calling out top fighters lately from the 135 and 147-pound divisions. He recently had no luck in getting a fight against WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney.
Russell’s attempts at making the unbeaten Haney (24-0, 15 KOs) went to pieces after the term sheet sent from Haney’s team wasn’t up to Gary’s liking.
Rather than stick it out with the negotiations, Haney moved on and is fighting 38-year-old Yuriorkis Gamboa this Saturday night on November 7th. Russell also tried to fight against WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford, but he never showed any interest in fighting him.
Gary Russell Jr calls out Tank
“Tank, I want you so bad,” said Gary Russell Jr on social media in calling out Tank Davis. “Floyd [Mayweather] was scared before the sixth round because Leo had a good little game plan, but he couldn’t stick to it. He’s not defensively sound. So he’s able to get hit with wide a** loaded up shots like that,” said Russell.
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