By Max Shramm: Trainer Andre Rozier believes Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis has got a great shot at defeating former WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman in their potential fight this year.
Rozier says Tank (25-0, 24 KOs) has power that is better than many of the top 147-pounders in the division, and Thurman will have problems trying to deal with it.
Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe has already made it crystal clear that he’s ready to make the Davis vs. Thurman fight. He’s waiting for Thurman’s management to contact him so they can negotiate the contest.
Initially, Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs) seemed a little off balance when the possibility of a fight with the former three-division world champion Tank Davis was brought up to him.
A loss to Davis for Thurman would be a destructive blow to his career, but it wouldn’t be the end. Thurman could come back from it, as long as he doesn’t take another two-year break.
Keith is now thinking about the huge money he can make on PPV fighting Tank, as it’s a match that he believes could bring in as many as 600,000 pay-per-view buys.
Gervonta Davis has the power to beat Thurman
“Listen, Gervonta, that’s my little nephew, and he reps hard,” said trainer Andre Rozier to Fighthype when asked about his thoughts on Keith Thurman possibly facing Gervonta Davis.
“You know what? He [Tank Davis] has the equalizer, and that’s an important thing to have, and we already know that Thurman can be rocked. Gervonta’s punching power is ephemerally different.
“It’s like that Mikey Tyson punching power. He [Tank] can punch; he’s for real. Look, I’ve worked with a lot of punchers in my lifetime.
“My nephew Curtis Stevens, Joe Greene, Danny Jacobs, Marcus Browne. These guys can crack, and when a guy has that unreal unearthly power, you can make anything happen. So I got to roll with him [Tank Davis],” said Rozier.
Gervonta tested out as having more power than former two-time heavyweight world title challenger Dominic Breazeale when the two were tested on a punching machine.
Both of them threw left hands, and Gervonta’s shots were harder than Breazeale’s.
Anthony Joshua beats Usyk
“Joshua all the way,” said Rozier when asked his thoughts on the September 25th fight between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk.
“Too big, too strong. He [Usyk] is talented, but he can’t get him [Joshua] off his a**. Joshua, if he comes in there hot and ready, he’s going to knock him out,” said Rozier.
Joshua, 6’6″, 240+ lbs, has the size to destroy the smaller, weaker former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs). But if Usyk can get Joshua tired or get him out of position, he could theoretically knock him out.
Andy Ruiz Jr isn’t the biggest puncher in the heavyweight division, yet he stopped Joshua in their first fight.
Pacquiao’s energy could be a problem for Spence
“Manny [Pacquiao] is so kinetic, you never know what you’re going to get with Manny, but you know he’s coming to fight,” said Rozier in discussing the Pacquiao vs. Errol Spence Jr fight.
“Spence has to be careful. He can’t be thinking, ‘He’s 42 and all this.’ Manny is always bouncing; he can punch.
“You can’t make mistakes. I thought that with [Keith], Thurman and I lost five thousand dollars,” Rozier said when asked if Spence’s youth will be too much for Pacquiao.
IBF/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr will try and keep the fight on the outside by using his jab to keep Manny Pacquiao from getting in range.
Spence is good at controlling distance against shorter fighters, and I believe he’ll do that against Pacquiao to pound out a 12 round decision on August 21st.
Tyson Fury will beat Deontay Wilder again
“You’re going to see the same thing that happened before in the second fight,” Rozier said about the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder trilogy match on October 9th.
“He [Wilder] has more time, but it takes so much time to become a different athlete. I can’t see it happening. Yes, he does. He needs to be a different [fighter].
“But, he [Wilder] couldn’t erase Tyson in the first fight. The man did the undertaker on him. He [Fury] went down and got up. When you do that with somebody that can really punch, it takes your heart away.
“I am too [ a Wilder fan], but I got to keep it real on what it is. What you have to do [to improve Deontay] is clean up some of his disciplines. He has to work off the jab.
“There are some things that have to be sharp. You can’t change everything, but you have to change a few things and make them better,” Rozier said.
Rozier assumes that Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder have been put into a state of suspended animation in which neither of them has changed physically or mentally from their fight last year.
If the two fighters are EXACTLY what they were a year ago, Fury will destroy Wilder on October 9th in their trilogy. But there’s an excellent chance Fury has lost something, and Wilder has improved enough to win the third fight.
Joe Smith Jr. vs. Daniel Jacobs?
“We’re going to be working together, yes,” said Rozier about Daniel Jacobs. “We were hoping to mix it up with Joe Smith.
“I don’t know what’s going on right now. We have to wait and see because Joe Smith has a mandatory that he needs to take care of, then we’ll see what happens.
“But Joe Smith is a wonderful friend of ours, and he reps my clothing line to the tee.
“I really don’t want to see them [Jacobs and Smith] fight, but this is the business of boxing, and this is how they make their money.
“I’m not going to be the one to deny them making their millions of dollars,” said Rozier.
Former IBF/WBA middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (37-3, 30 KOs) hasn’t done anything in a long time for him to rate challenging WBO light heavyweight champion Joe Smith Jr for his title.
Jacobs hasn’t impressed in his last three fights against Gabriel Rosado, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, and Canelo Alvarez. It would be better for Jacobs, 34, to earn a title shot at 175 first by taking on Gilberto Ramirez or Maxim Vlasov.
If Jacobs can beat one of those guys, he should be given a title shot against WBO light heavyweight champion Joe Smith Jr.
It would be sending the wrong message to fans and the fighters if Jacobs were given a title shot coming off of his controversial 12 round split decision win over Gabriel Rosado last November.