Canelo Alvarez says Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis can’t take over as the ‘Face of Boxing’ until he’s retired from the sport, and that’s NOT happening yet. Canelo isn’t saying how long he’ll stay around, but you can bet it’ll be at least a year or two before he hangs up his gloves.
Further, Tank’s win over Ryan Garcia wasn’t nearly enough to put him in the category of ‘Face of Boxing,’ according to Canelo. The soon-to-be 29-year-old Gervonta (29-0, 27 KOs) will need to take some real risks with his career besides beating Ryan and his Mayweather Promotions stablemate Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero to become the #1 fighter in the sport.
What Tank Davis needs to become the top dog in boxing is to clean up the 135-lb division and beat the most prominent names at 140 without the assistance of a rehydration clause to weaken his opponents.
It’s a bad look on Gervonta’s part to force his opponents to agree to weight stipulations for them to fight him because it makes him look like someone that needs a handicap for him to win.
“I’m not retired yet, my friend. It’s not that easy. I like Gervonta Davis a lot, but he needs to do more to be the ‘Face of Boxing.’ One fight with Garcia, and I respect Ryan Garcia, isn’t going to do it,” said Canelo Alvarez to the media.
The WBA could help Tank Davis further his dream of becoming the ‘Face of Boxing,’ They reportedly plan to order him to face the winner of the May 20th fight between undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney and Vasily Lomachenko. This would be part of the WBA’s belt consolidation program.
Tank Davis holds the WBA ‘regular’ 135-lb belt, which the World Boxing Association is phasing out. As such, Davis will need to agree to fight the Hany vs. Lomachenko winner if he wants to continue to hold a title with the WBA.
If not, Tank will be belt-less at 135 and just viewed as another one of the many contenders in the division. It’s doubtful that Davis will move up to 140, as he struggled badly with the size of Mario Barrios in their fight in 2021.
If a non-puncher like Barrios gave Gervonta huge problems, you can only imagine what Regis Prograis, Subriel Matias, or Josh Taylor would do to him.
