By Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Jr says Gervonta ‘Tank Davis’ future will eventually be at 140 once he outgrows the lower weight classes at 130 and 135.
In a positive sign, Gervonta (25-0, 24 KOs) displayed the ability to overcome the higher height and reach advantage of the taller 5’10” WBA light welterweight champion Mario Barrios (26-1, 17 KOs) to chop him down to size at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
While it took a motivational speech from Mayweather in Tank’s corner after the seventh to help get the win over Barrios, he still showed the talent to beat the bigger guy once he started fighting at full throttle.
Davis was on another level once he started firing power shots with both hands, dropping Barrios twice in the eighth and another time in the eleventh round before the fight was halted.
The performance by Gervonta showed that he’ll be able to compete on a high level in the future once he outgrows the 130 and 135-pound weight classes.
“He going to be able to eventually move up,” Mayweather said about Gervonta moving up to 140 someday. “He jumped a little bit faster than I jumped.
“I gradually moved up because I was at 130 for, I think, I don’t know how many years, and then I gradually moved up to ’35, ’40, ’47, and then ’54. I don’t think he’ll ever fight at ’54.”
As long as Mayweather doesn’t force Tank to stay in a weight class that he’s outgrown, he should be able to keep his unbeaten record for a long time.
We’ll likely start to see Tank missing weight for the 130 and 135-lb divisions soon, particularly if Mayweather doesn’t keep him fighting two to three times a year.
Tank tends to blow up between fights, and you can only get away with doing that so many times.
What we don’t want is for Tank to eat himself to middleweight, and be stuck fighting guys that are way too big for him. That could happen. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr used to be a good fighter when he fought at 160, but he ate himself out of that division and then did the same for the 168-lb weight class.
The sky is the limit! #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/Bq3GKnaCNq
— Mayweather Promotions (@MayweatherPromo) June 28, 2021
As it is, Tank might do well to give up on those weight classes and start campaigning at 140 right now because there’s no one with Mayweather promotions and PBC for him to fight in those divisions.
Floyd made it clear last Saturday that there won’t be any cross-promotional reaching out with other promoters for fights involving Tank.
He’s going to guard Tank like a mother hen protecting her nestling, which is the wise thing for Floyd to do because Tank is the only money fighter he’s got in his Mayweather Promotions stable right now.
But as long as Mayweather is guarding him, he could help lure other talented fighters to his Mayweather Promotions stable to sign up.
We’ve seen how Canelo Alvarez was a great promotional tool to draw younger fighters to sign with Golden Boy Promotions when he used to fight for them. We’ve also seen how Anthony Joshua has had the same effect with Matchroom Boxing in bringing talented fighters to that company.