Bob Arum says Gervonta Davis’ jail time that he’s serving for his hit & run sentence will likely make it impossible for him to return to the ring this year to fight undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney.
Arum points out that the roughly two months that Tank Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) will be serving in jail will cause him to get out of shape because they don’t have the equipment and environment for a professional athlete to stay in stay in top form.
So when Tank is released in July, it’s going to take him a long time to get back in shape. Also, negotiations for a fight of that magnitude against Haney will likely take months.
Arum believes Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) could move up to 140 because he’s having problems making 135. Indeed, Haney looked like a rehydrated welterweight in his fight against Vasyl Lomachenko last month, and he gassed out badly in the second half of that fight.
The only round Haney fought well was the twelfth, and that was because Lomachenko took his foot off the accelerator.
“That’s up to the promoters, the other ones laying out the money. They have to determine where is the sweet spot and act accordingly,” said Bob Arum to Fighthype when asked what should be the PPV price for Errol Spence Jr vs. Terence Crawford.
“Why would I get in their shoes where I have no idea what they’ve guaranteed the fighters, what their net is? How could I decide accurately?
“I think Al Haymon is on the hook for that fight and will make the correct decision. He’s been around a long time and he knows what he’s doing.
“Well, I would give it to Devin but again, Gervonta is not going to be in a position soon to fight at that level of Devin Haney. No,
because he’s going to have to serve the term in jail and if you serve in jail, no matter how well they treat you, you’re going to get out of shape and so forth.
“So when he comes back, it’s going to have to spend a lot of time to get into shape. Well, two more two months is a lot of time for an athlete, where he’s not running and so forth, where he’s cooped up in jail.
“Maybe he gets an hour or two hours out of his cell. He [Tank Davis] isn’t going to be in 100 best shape. Don’t say that because I know for a fact that he wouldn’t be. No human being will be.
“Nobody’s torturing him in jail but he’s not going to have available
there the type of atmosphere and equipment that he needs to stay in shape, whether it’s Tank or Mayweather. We went through that with Mayweather.
“So Tank is not going to be ready to have a top fight with a guy like Haney until sometime next year.
“Tank is a much smaller guy. So again, it’ll be up to the negotiation. I think Devin is having trouble fighting at 135, and I think he wants to go to 140, and would probably do
better at 140 than 13. But that’s up to Devin and his team to determine,” said Arum.
