By Adam Baskin: Gervonta Davis says he wasn’t serious about fighting undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford, and instead, he’ll be looking to return to the ring late this year or early in 2024.
Crawford made it clear in a recent interview that the only way a fight with Gervonta happens is if he moves up to 147 because he’s not moving down in weight.
That translates to Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) viewing himself as the A-side, the guy that brings in the fans for a fight with Tank Davis, and that obviously won’t fly with the Baltimore native nor his promoters at Mayweather Promotions.
Tank (29-0, 27 KOs), who many feel is the new ‘Face of Boxing’ now that Canelo Alvarez is washed up, created a lot of attention recently talking about a fight with Crawford, but he admits he was joking around and the fans ran away with it.
Crawford is moving up to 154 or possibly 168 to try and become a three-division undisputed champion. If he were to fight Tank, he would need to drain down to 135 and likely agree to a rehydration clause to keep him from rehydrating to super middleweight.
Crawford’s ego would keep him from agreeing to a rehydration clause to get a fight with Tank Davis. This week, Crawford’s trainer Brian ‘BoMac’ Mcintyre revealed that his walking around weight is 168 lbs, which is way bigger than what Tank Davis weighs for his fights at 135.
Gervonta told DTLRRadioFM that he’ll be back in action potentially later this year or early next. Although the talented Tank Davis didn’t mention who he’ll be facing, ESPN revealed last weekend that it’ll be a rematch with Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (25-2-1, 17 KOs), a fighter that Gervonta barely edged out with a twelve round unanimous decision in December 2021.
“We gonna make sure to tell Terence Crawford to keep your name out his mouth. He’s talking crazy, you think about that one(fight)?”
Gervonta Davis: “Nah, it was just some talking on Twitter(spaces) going back and forth joking around, but you know how people do. I’m the face of… pic.twitter.com/jMpKBWUGcn
— Danny (@dantheboxingman) August 29, 2023
The closeness of the Davis-Cruz fight has created a lot of interest in a rematch between the two, and this is an excellent time to get that one out of the way for Gervonta.
Tank Davis is coming off a big win over Ryan Garcia from last April in a massive fight that brought in huge PPV numbers on Showtime. Unfortunately, the way that the match ended, there’s no chance for a second contest.
The big fight for Tank Davis at lightweight is Shakur Stevenson, but that one still needs to be marinated for two to five years before it’s big enough to be with it for the Baltimore native.
The casual boxing fans don’t know who Shakur is yet, and he doesn’t have a built-in fan base in the U.S. like Isaac Cruz does that he can count on to purchase a fight between him and Tank Davis on PPV.