By Jeff Aronow: Regis Prograis says he’s not worried about Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis’ trash-talking on social media because he sees him as a barking chihuahua dog, who will clam up if a fight between the two is signed.
Prograis was taken by surprise when he saw the below comment from Tank Davi s about him. The way that Tank looked in his last fight against Leo Santa Cruz on October 31st, he would be food for Prograis.
“I will beat the s*** out this bum,” said Tank Davis on Twitter when asked about a potential fight with Prograis.
Regis says he sees the 5’5″ Tank as too small to compete against him, and he doesn’t think he has the needed size to compete at 140.
Prograis isn’t the only one that sees Tank Davis as too small for the light welterweight division. Teofimo Lopez also thinks he doesn’t have the size and feels that he’s just looking to pick up an easy title to add to his credentials.
Prograis compares Tank to a yapping dog
“I don’t know if you’ve ever had a small dog, a small Chihuahua, it’s something like that,” said Prograis to iFL TV about Tank Davis talking trash about him on Twitter.
“They do a lot of barking. If you put them in front of a window and they see cats and dogs, they’ll bark, bark and bark. But as soon as you open that door, they’ll probably run back in the house.
I feel it’s the same way with them with a lot of the dudes that have been calling me out. They say all this s*** because they know the fight is not going to happen.
“It’s the same thing with Broner and now with Gervonta Davis. They’re saying this s*** because they know these fights are not going to happen. So, of course, they’re going to talk.
“I guaranteed that if me and him [Tank Davis] ever sign the contract, he will shut his mouth because he knows I’m going to come and punish him. I think it’s all bull s***, bro.
What upsets former WBA light welterweight champion Prograis (25-1, 21 KOs) is Tank is planning on challenging WBA ‘regular’ 140lb champion Mario Barrios for his title next.
Barrios (26-0, 17 KOs) was supposed to be fighting him next, but then he was told by his people that Mario couldn’t make the 140-lb limit, and he was going to move up to 147.
But instead of that happening, Barrios will be staying at 140 and will be defending his WBA title against Tank Davis next. Prograis is getting passed over for the title shot against Barrios, and he’s not happy about it.
Prograis is fighting Ivan Redkach (23-5-1, 18 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round fight on the undercard of the Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren card on April 17th at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta Georgia.
Mayweather won’t let Tank fight Prograis
“Listen, Tank is like 5’4″, bro,” said Prograis. “He’s a tiny little. I saw him; he’s f*** little. He might have power for those little weights, but he can’t come up to 140.
“That power is not going to carry. I guarantee you. That mother f*** can probably hit me flush right here, right now, and I’ll probably look at him. ‘That’s all you f*** got?’
“He’s saying all that, and like I said, ‘It’s a lot of barking.’ Tank likes to do a lot of trolling online, but that s*** ain’t going to happen.
“That’s his [Floyd Mayweather Jr] cash cow. You know he’s not going to let him out. Tank is cool like I said.
“He likes to troll and all that stuff, but business-wise, that’s his cash cow. Floyd’s not going to let that boy nowhere close to me.
“They can say that s*** all they want, that s*** is not going to happen. Tank looked a little sweet in that video. Hold on, that looked a little suspect,” said Prograis.
Regis is probably right about Floyd Mayweather Jr not letting Tank Davis anywhere near him. Floyd never put Tank in with any of the top lightweights like Vasily Lomachenko or Teofimo Lopez, which makes sense.
Barrios was supposed to fight Prograis
“The whole reason this got brought up is because one of the boxing sites posted a picture of me and him,” said Prograis about his beef with Tank Davis.
“‘Who do you think wins?’ What happened was, I fought on his [Gervonta] undercard. In my last fight [against Juan Heraldez], I fought on his undercard. I fought on Halloween, and [Mario] Barrios fought.
“So it was promised to me that me and Barrios were going to fight for the WBA regular belt; we were supposed to fight for that.
“After the fight, that didn’t go through because they said that Barrios was moving up to 147. They said, ‘He cannot absolutely make 140 no more. He’s too big, and he can’t make it.’
“So it was like, ‘Alright, fine.’ I was going to try and get somewhere and try and get the [WBA 140-lb] belt. Then all of a sudden, I saw that Tank is supposed to fight Barrios.
“I have nothing bad to say about Tank because he, of course, is trying to get a belt at 140. I had something bad to say about Barrios. ‘Bro, that’s some f8** up s***.’
“That’s some b*** a** s*** basically because he was supposed to fight me, but then all of a sudden, he’s saying, ‘I can’t make the weight.
“I’m too big; I got to go to 147.’ Then he wants to fight a 130, 135-pounders, so for me, I said that, then it got compared to me and Tank. So that’s how that got started,” said Prograis.
Barrios can make more money fighting Tank Davis than if he were to defend his WBA title against Prograis, so you can understand why he’s taking that fight.
Prograis fights Redkach on April 17th
“All my fights I’m 100% confident with,” said Prograis when asked about his April 17th fight against Ivan Redkach.
“Ivan is a cool dude, but right now, it’s business. To me, I’m not even thinking it’s Ivan because I don’t even want to think like that.
“This fight is going to be on Triller on April 17th. This fight is going to have a lot of eyes because of the Jake Paul and all that situation.
“I just have to go out there and be spectacular, and that’s my focus.
“I still feel like I’m at the top at 140,” said Prograis. “They got the belt-holders, but I still feel like I’m at the top.
“That’s what I want to prove every time. Against Ivan, I got to go out there and make a statement, I’m here,” said Prograis.
There’s not much to gain from Prograis fighting Ivan Redkach on April 17th, which is why he’s going to have to make easy work of him if he wants to receive credit.
It’s got to be a big disappointment for Prograis to be facing the 34-year-old journeyman Redkach next rather than a top fighter. Oh well, it’s a good stay-busy fight for Regis.