A weighty topic consuming boxing these days is who should be Gervonta Davis’ next opponent.
“Tank” currently competes as a lightweight but has previously fought at 140 pounds and it’s been said by his camp that he could even still make 130 pounds.
There is no scarcity for top-shelf opponents Davis could face. Chief among them are lightweights Shakur Stevenson and Vasiliy Lomachenko and super lightweights Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez Jr.
In recent weeks, Davis has even been open to fighting Conor Benn, who last fought at 150 pounds and 154 pounds before that.
Hall of Fame fighter and former four-division champion Roy Jones Jr. was the pound-for-pound king during his heyday and knows first hand giving up size advantages. Jones famously stepped up from light heavyweight to heavyweight in 2003, competed at a 33-pound disadvantage as a 193 fighter to score a unanimous decision win against John Ruiz for the title.
“Tank has been doing a great job of what he’s been doing, so he doesn’t have to call anyone’s name. He’s fine because he’s must-see TV by himself. That’s what you want to be able to be,” Jones told BoxingScene.com in an interview. “If you’re must-see TV by yourself, it doesn’t matter who you fight. The rest of those guys need him. He doesn’t need them. So, for him he can fight whoever he wants to fight.
“Yeah, they’re going to demand that he fights some names soon, but in the meanwhile, he fights whoever he wants to fight because why? He’s must-see TV, no matter who he’s in there against.
“You want to see him fight Shakur. Yeah, you want to see him fight Haney. Haney is probably going to outgrow him. Shakur ain’t going to be far behind that because [Davis] is short, and they’re not.
“So, if he’s going to fight one of them, he better hurry up and do it now because the longer he waits, the more it weighs in their favor. They’re both going to get bigger than him. So, maybe he’ll go and fight Loma. They’re both still at 135. Why not go and fight Loma now? I don’t know. Tank is a very difficult guy to deal with. He’s got a lot of weapons and a lot of tools.”
Davis last fought in April and knocked out Ryan Garcia in a 136-pound catchweight clash.
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.