By Brian Webber: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis has revealed that he’ll be taking a tune-up fight against a still-to-be-determined opponent on January 7th, followed by a 136-lb catchweight clash against Ryan Garcia in April.
According to Mike Coppinger, the Tank vs. Ryan fight will be in April in a joining pay-per-view bout in Las Vegas on DAZN & Showtime.
It’s great news that Showtime is willing to allow DAZN to share in the broadcast to make the Tank-Ryan fight a reality because, without that, it wouldn’t be happening.
The hardcore & casual boxing fans that think highly of Ryan Garcia will be pleased that he’s facing Gervonta Davis next, but it will not likely be very competitive.
For Tank to be in a competitive match, he must be matched against the cream of the lightweight crop Devin Haney, Shakur Stevenson, Michel Rivera, and Vasyl Lomachenko. Ryan is still way too green to view this as a 50-50 affair, especially given how vulnerable he looked getting poleaxed by Luke Campbell.
I’ll be back in the ring Jan 7 stay tuned for more details! After that it’s me and Ryan signed sealed delivered…done deal!
— Gervonta Davis (@Gervontaa) November 17, 2022
Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis have announced they will meet in a superfight in Las Vegas next year. Sources tell ESPN the 136-pound catchweight bout is slated for April, and that Showtime and DAZN will jointly deliver the PPV. Massive win for boxing #GervontaGarcia
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) November 17, 2022
This is one of these fights involving a proven fighter in Gervonta (27-0, 25 KOs), with world titles having been won in three weight classes taking an inexperienced boxer/social media type of fighter in Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs).
It has mismatch written all over it, but maybe it’ll be competitive. Ryan’s best career wins have come against the faded veterans Luke Campbell and Javier Fortuna.
Besides those two, Ryan has fought no one worth mentioning, which is why it’s impossible to know how he’ll do against Tank Davis because he arguably shouldn’t be challenging for a world title with his weak resume.
As for Tank’s January 7th fight, it will be in Washington, DC, and there has been a handful of fighters mentioned as potential foes for him. One of the names mentioned is 34-year-old featherweight Gary Russell Jr, who is coming off a loss to Mark Magsayo and a shoulder injury.
For Russell Jr to fight Tank, he would need to move up in weight two weight classes and make it through training camp without reinjuring his shoulder.
With the money Russell Jr would be getting for the fight, it wouldn’t be surprising if he were to fight Gervonta with only one good arm and get beaten in a non-competitive bout.
Ideally, Tank should fight someone from the 135 or 140-pound weight classes rather than combing the 126-lb division for another small guy for him to beat up on like we saw in his wipeout wins over Leo Santa Cruz, and Yuriorkis Gamboa.
It would be great to see Tank face one of these fighters:
- Gary Antuanne Russell
- Teofimo Lopez
- Vasyl Lomachenko
- Michel Rivera
- Shakur Stevenson
- Jose Ramirez
- Subriel Matias