By Matt Lieberman: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis will never become the great fighter that he could if he’s stuck fighting in-house opposition with Mayweather Promotions and PBC stable fighters, says promoter Eddie Hearn.
Tank Davis probably never be great, but he’ll make a lot of money for his promoters during his career, and he probably won’t lose for a long, long time.
The Matchroom Boxing boss Hearn was troubled recently after listening to Floyd Mayweather Jr tell the media that Gervonta (25-0, 24 KOs) will only be fighting in-house opposition from the fighters in the PBC and Mayweather Promotions stables.
Hearn feels that Tank Davis will never become the star that he could unless he faces these fighters that aren’t promoted by PBC and Mayweather Promotions:
- Devin Haney
- Teofimo Lopez
- Ryan Garcia
That’s a small list, of course, because there are guys that Tank Davis should also be fighting like Vasily Lomachenko, Josh Taylor, Regis Prograis, and Jose Ramirez.
Some promoters take the same approach that Mayweather is talking about, but they don’t openly admit it. With that said, they make exceptions to that rule by working with other promoters for the bigger-money fights.
Gervonta = the only star Mayweather Promotions has got
Eddie wants the impossible from Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and his promoters Mayweather Promotions & PBC. He wants him to dare to be great, but he doesn’t realize that their side has no interest.
Tank is the only true money-maker for Mayweather Promotions. If Gervonta gets beaten, there’s no one to replace him in Floyd Mayweather’s stable.
Although Mayweather has a massive fortune in hundreds of millions of dollars, he hasn’t used that money to pour it into his company to sign the cutting-edge fighters.
Mayweather has the money to make his promotional company the biggest in boxing, but he hasn’t chosen to do that for some reason.
If you compare Mayweather Promotions’ stable of fighters to Matchroom Boxing or Top Rank, they don’t have anywhere near the same talent. So essentially, Tank Davis is the ONLY guy Mayweather Promotions has as their money-fighter.
You can argue that the emphasis on putting Tank Davis in sure-thing gimme fights against lesser opposition results from the lack of money-fighters for the Mayweather Promotions stable.
Gervonta won’t be great if he’s stuck fighting in-house competition
“You’re not giving these fighters an opportunity to go out and create a legacy and be great because you’re just trying to match them in-house,” said Eddie Hearn to the DAZN Boxing Show in reacting to Floyd Mayweather Jr saying he’s only going to put Gervonta Davis with in-house opposition against Mayweather Promotions and PBC fighters.
“You look at Gervonta Davis; Gervonta Davis will never be a great unless he fights Teofimo unless he fights Ryan Garcia unless he fights Devin,” said Hearn.
Mayweather seems to have an opposite goal for what he wants Gervonta to achieve.
It appears that money is making Tank a lot of money is the supreme goal that Mayweather is aiming at for him, not trying to turn him into a great fighter.
You can argue it’s more about business. The same way that Mayweather stopped taking risks with his own career.
He’s doing the same thing with Tank Davis but to a more extreme level. Mayweather at least was willing to take risks against Canelo Alvarez, Miguel Cotto, and Manny Pacquiao.
With Tank being Mayweather Promotion’s only money-maker, Floyd isn’t taking chances of him getting beaten.
Hearn wants Tank Davis to take chances
“So we just have to open our minds a little bit and say, ‘It’s okay to take chances, it’s okay to fight a guy from another platform. It’s okay to flip a coin in the air every now and then and have a bit of fun and chase a dream,” said Hearn.
It’s easier for Hearn to be cavalier about letting his own fighters take career risks because he’s got so many talented guys in his Matchroom Boxing stable.
If Hearn’s star Anthony Joshua gets beaten, he still has guys like Devin Haney and Canelo Alvarez, for example, to take in the slack. In contrast, Mayweather Promotions has no one to take over as the money guy once Gervonta starts losing.
For that reason, we’re not going to see Tank get put in with talented fighters like Josh Taylor, Teofimo, Lomachenko, or Jose Ramirez.
Yeah, Mayweather Promotions will let Tank fight Ryan Garcia because he’s very beatable, but it’s a different story with the more solid fighters like Lomachenko, Taylor, Teofimo & Haney.