Jermell Charlo believes Gervonta “Tank” Davis is the prime mover of this current era of boxing.
Charlo, the undisputed 154-pound champion from Houston, Texas, had high praise for the southpaw from Baltimore, in a recent interview, calling him the “face of boxing.”
The moniker—perhaps second only to pound-for-pound lists in terms of generating fervent debate within the sport—has recently often been applied to Canelo Alvarez, for his accomplishments and commercial viability.
“America’s got the best fighters in the world in the last few years,” Charlo told former NBA forward Stephen Jackson in a recent episode of Fight Towns on Showtime Sports. “Our GOAT (Greatest of All Time) was [Muhammad] Ali. Our now GOAT is [Floyd] Mayweather. How do you beat them? Our era’s different.
“I think, truly, right now, though, the face of boxing gotta be, probably, Gervonta Davis, to me. Right now, if you think about who really conquered the new world, selling out every fight, he performing well. Everybody wants to stay focused on the negativity, but he’s grinding his ass off.”
Davis, 28, is coming off a high-profile win over rival Ryan Garcia in April in front of a sell-out crowd at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Davis stopped Garcia with a body shot in the seventh round of a 136-pound bout that reportedly generated over one million pay-per-view buys. It was Davis’ sixth consecutive time headlining a pay-per-view card. The southpaw Davis has proven himself to be a draw in various metropolitan areas across the United States.
Davis is currently in jail serving the remainder of his three-month sentence after he violated the terms of his house arrest stemming from a hit-and-run crash that injured four people in 2020.
Charlo has not fought since stopping Brian Castano in the 10th-round last year, in May, at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. Sidelined due to a broken hand, Charlo is expected to defend his belts later this year against top contender Tim Tszyu of Australia.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.