By Jim Calfa: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis was back in the gym for the first time today since his victory over Ryan Garcia last April. In today’s mitt workout, Tank looked fast, throwing blistering combinations.
What was interesting was his chunky 50-ish coach was almost as fast as him, which was surprising. Tank will presumably be defending his secondary WBA lightweight title in the first quarter of 2024 in what some believe will be a rematch with Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz. Tank beat him two years ago, but the fight did good numbers, so that they may run it back.
Another option for Tank Davis’ next fight is a rematch with Ryan Garcia, who requested a rematch last week. That could be a strong possibility, but it’s a fight that likely won’t do as well as last time because of how one-sided it was last April.
Ryan is fighting on December 2nd against lightweight Oscar Duarte. If he wins that, he’ll likely call out Gervonta immediately after.
For the Tank rematch to make sense, Ryan should at least beat a top-tier contender from the 140-lb division, like Arnold Barboza Jr, Gary Antuanne Russell, or Richardson Hitchins. This writer isn’t holding his breath, waiting for Ryan to fight any of those killers.
That’s a rematch that few boxing fans want to see, but it’s right up the alley for how Tank has matched his entire ten-year professional career. We can only hope that Pitbull isn’t the one he is facing.
Instead of fighting the opposition, people want to see him battle, and his promoters have put him in against guys like Pitbull, Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero, Ryan Garcia, and Leo Santa Cruz.
We don’t know yet what network Tank Davis & PBC management will be working with now that Showtime won’t be showing boxing any longer. If Tank goes to Amazon Prime, we’ll see whether they give him carte blanche to face whether he wants to, no matter how poor, like he’d been doing with Showtime all these years.
— Gervonta Davis (@Gervontaa) October 24, 2023
The soon-to-be 29-year-old Baltimore native Tank Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) was in jail for 44 days over the summer for violating the terms of his 90-day home detention for his hit-run accident three years ago in 2020.
“He has creativity. I’m not saying Tank don’t have creativity, but if you put them on a scale about who brings more creativity to the table, I would say, Teofimo Lopez,” said Gary Antuanne Russell to MillCity Boxing when asked who is the better fighter, Gervonta Davis or Teofimo Lopez.
“A lot of times, that’s what wins fights: courage, creativity, and smarts. I’m not saying Tank don’t have smarts and he don’t have courage, and he don’t have creativity. He just don’t have the amount of creativity that Teofimo Lopez has.”
It doesn’t matter whether Teofimo is better or worse than Tank Davis; that fight isn’t going to happen in a million years. Mayweather Promotions doesn’t match Tank Davis against opposition with a chance of beating him, and Teo, if he’s mentally all there, would be a real threat.
“For example, when Tank fought [Isaac] Pitbull [Cruz. I think that was the first time I ever seen him try to box,” said Russell. He did some good boxing, making him miss, but it didn’t look fluent. It looked like it was, ‘It’s a little difficult for me, but I can pull it off, I can do it,’ but it didn’t look smooth.”
Tank Davis looked terrible trying to box Pitbull Cruz and barely beat him. The Baltimore native’s excuse about having an injured hand didn’t hold water with the fans, who saw it as a sign of someone who couldn’t admit that he’s lacking in the talent department.
“Teofimo Lopez, he can get on his dance. He can move and box a person, or he can walk at you, showing creativity or showing both,” said Russell. “At the same time, I can only think, ‘Hey, they’re in my division. Don’t get too comfortable there. If you move up, don’t get too comfortable there.”
Teofimo will likely face Ryan Garcia or the winner of the Devin Haney vs. Regis Prograis fight, but that’s if he doesn’t price himself out or want to continue his time off from boxing.
Teo could have taken the December 9th Heisman date but said he wanted to spend time with his family. You have to question how much enthusiasm Teofimo has for boxing, as he’s missing out.
We saw the same behavior from him after his win over Vasily Lomachenko. He stayed out of the ring a year and came back and lost to George Kambosos Jr.
“It’s possible because you never know how someone is going to react and respond,” said Russell when asked if he thinks size could play a part in a fight between Tank Davis and Teofimo. “Look at [Jermell] Charlo and Canelo. Size played a factor.
“He [Jermell] moved up in weight, but at the same time, skills definitely sell. Skills win fights. If Charlo did what he needed to do, he would have won the fight, but it’s hard.
“He mentally checked in. He said, ‘Nah, I got to make an executive decision. Either survive or get knocked out,'” said Russell about Charlo in his fight against Canelo Alvarez last September.
Jermell Charlo is pretty much done with the sport, and if he does come back, it’ll be a final cash-out against Terence Crawford or Tim Tszyu.
