Gervonta Davis is expected to be elevated from ‘regular’ to full WBA lightweight title due to the current champion Devin Haney’s decision to vacate his undisputed championship.
Of course, Tank Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) can always turn it down and continue to hold onto his secondary WBA lightweight strap as he has since capturing the vacant ‘regular’ belt against Yuriorkis Gamboa in December 2019.
Ideally, it would have been better for Gervonta to capture the full WBA lightweight title by earning it inside the ring by defeating Haney, but the fight couldn’t be made.
Haney revealed this week to ESPN that he’d been unable to arrange a fight with Tank Davis, which could mean that Mayweather Promotions didn’t want to put their money-maker at risk of losing and having their revenue stream dry up like a depleted oil well.
Tank Davis = WBA email champion
The elevation to full WBA 135-lb champion will essentially make the 29-year-old Gervonta an email champion, making him look illegitimate in the eyes of hardcore boxing fans who closely follow the sport.
Casual boxing fans won’t be aware of this and will continue to be eager to watch the Mayweather-promoted Tank Davis feast on fighters like Isaac Cruz, Ryan Garcia, and Hector Luis Garcia.
Tank being made full WBA 135-lb champion probably won’t impact his popularity or assist with making essential fights happen. He’s already a low-level PPV attraction, and his management hasn’t shown much interest in putting him in risky fights during his ten-year professional career.
In a supporting sense, Gervonta being elevated to WBA champion would help him set up unification fights against WBC champ Shakur Stevenson and whichever fights capture Haney’s remaining IBF & WBO belts, but that’s not expected to happen.
Gervonta’s career stunted
The belts at lightweight don’t seem to have much of an attraction for Tank Davis or his management, as they seem to be focusing on selecting certain fighters but not ones that bring in a lot of risk.
That type of match-making has been a double-edged sword for the Baltimore native Tank Davis. On the plus side, it’s helped him stay unbeaten, as he’s not taken on easy fights against opposition that almost any top five contenders would defeat in the lightweight division.
The negative part about is is that it’s kept Tank from becoming more popular, as he’s not fought the opposition needed to make him a mega-PPV star.
You can argue strongly that Gervonta’s career has been stunted by the way he’s been matched, and he could be so much more popular today if he’d fought the fighters that the boxing public wanted to see him face.
