By Jim Calfa: WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis showed challenger Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz during Saturday’s weigh-in for their fight on Showtime PPV this Sunday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
The two fighters had to be pulled apart after the hard push from the champion Tank Davis.
Tank (25-0, 24 KOs) weighed in at 134 1/2 lbs, and his opponent Pitbull Cruz came in at 134 1/4 lbs.
Gervonta vs. Cruz altercation looked staged
After weighing in, Tank, 27, suddenly shoved Pitbull Cruz when he started flexing for the crowd. Tank initiated the altercation by moving directly in front of Pitbull Cruz, 23, to start flexing for the fans.
When Cruz attempted to pose alongside Tank, it resulted in him being shoved by the champion.
It looked obvious that this was a planned move on Tank Davis’ part to make it physical to get the boxing public talking about his fight on Sunday with the little-known Pitbull Cruz.
It was a theatrical type of alternation, appearing WWE-esque. Tank needs to take some acting classes to hone his dramatic skills for these events because it looked too obvious that it was fake. The idea is to feign anger during these altercations, but Tank’s facial expression looked placid as if he were going through a perfunctory ritual.
Gervonta is not a very good actor, and it wasn’t helped that Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe couldn’t keep a straight face during the alternation. He looked like he was going to laugh the entire time.
This fight is on SHOWTIME pay-per-view, so it is almost a given that an obligatory alteration would go down between Cruz and Tank Davis at the weigh-in.
What’s surprising is that Tank waited until the weigh-in to start with the physical stuff, but maybe that’s all it will take to get the fence-sitters willing to open their wallets to order the $70+ Davis vs. Cruz fight on Showtime PPV on Sunday night.
“We’re here to win and to win the world championship and defeat Gervonta Davis,” said Isaac Cruz at the weigh-in on Saturday. “I was expecting this for a long time.
Pitbull Cruz: Tank knows he’s going to lose
“He knows what’s in front of him and he’s going to lose. That’s why that happened,” said ‘Pitbull’ Cruz on why Gervonta shoved him at the weigh-in.
“He’s going to be defeated for the first time by a great Mexican,” Cruz said when asked what his message is for Tank Davis. “If he wants to dance, we dance. If he wants to punch, we punch. It’s up to him, I don’t care.
“I haven’t seen too much of the other kid [Pitbull Cruz], but I know he’s got that one good win against [Fernando ‘El Bandito’ Vargas]. It should be a good fight,” said Danny Garcia to Fighthype on Sunday’s Davis vs. Isaac Cruz fight. “I don’t know too much about him.
“I know Tank is going to bring his A-game, so that kid better chew a lot of bubblegum.
“My top three [at 135] besides Lomachenko, I’m not going to put him in there because he’s a young legend and he’s proven so much in the game. I’m going to say out of the new guys, the top three, I would say Gervonta, Haney, and [Teofimo] Lopez.
“He [George Kambosos Jr] would be #1, but I’m thinking skill-wise,” said Danny G.”I think he [Kambosos] had a better night against Lopez. I think Lopez is the better fighter, but he had the better night.
“I think Davis, Haney, and Lopez are my top three that I like. I’d like to see Davis and Haney fight. That would be a good fight,” said Danny Garcia.
