Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis has informed his followers that he’ll be defending his secondary WBA lightweight title against Frank Martin on June 22nd in Houston, Texas, at the Toyota Center.
That’s an interesting location for the Baltimore native Tank Davis’ fight, given that he’s not from Texas and neither is #2 WBA Detroit, Michigan native ‘The Ghost’ Martin (18-0, 12 KOs).
The Ghost vs. The Tank: A Style Clash
Martin is a robotic, musclebound type of fighter and gets hit a lot. Like a lot of fighters that have a lot of muscle, Martin is not very fast and is susceptible to getting hit, especially against opposition with good hand speed.
Tank’s management at PBC likely has someone from Texas that they’re going to put on the undercard. There’s no word yet about the PPV price for the Tank vs. Martin event on June 22nd.
It’ll probably be in the $70+ range, likely close to $80, and for that type of money, hopefully, it has a good undercard.
Tank’s Return from Long Layoff
Tank Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) will return to the ring after a 14-month layoff since his seventh-round knockout win over Ryan Garcia last April.
It’s a shame Tank is choosing to fight so seldom. At this rate, he’ll see action only five or six more times in his career before he’s old and washed. Tank won’t get as much out of the time he has left due to the rarity of his competitions.
Martin, 29, is a safe choice for Tank Davis to fight, as he looked bad in his last fight, struggling to defeat Artem Harutyunyan by a 12 round decision last July.
That performance was an eye-opener, showing that Martin isn’t the fighter that many casual boxing fans had thought he was. On a positive note. The tough time that ‘The Ghost’ Martin had against Harutyunyan opened the door for him to be selected by Tank Davis’ management at PBC.
If Martin had looked great in that fight, he probably wouldn’t be getting this opportunity to face Gervonta. It would have been better if Martin had fought a top-five contender to earn a title shot against Tank Davis rather than fighting the 33-year-old Harutyunyan.
No one would complain about Martin getting a title shot against Tank David if he’d beaten two or three of these guys:
Abdullah Mason
Floyd ‘Kid Austin’ Schofield
Andy Cruz
Keyshawn Davis
Vasily Lomachenko
Raymond Muratalla