Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis will be fighting in October against possibly WBC interim lightweight champion Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz Jr. Tank, 26, needs a solid fighter that can help increase his PPV buy-rate for his October fight.
Diaz Jr (32-1-1, 15 KOs) is fresh off his 12 round unanimous decision victory over Javier Fortuna on July 9th in a fight for the vacant WBC interim lightweight title. With the win, Diaz Jr is now the mandatory for WBC 135-lb champion Devin Haney.
Tank’s last contest against WBA ‘regular’ 140-lb champion Mario Barrios brought in an anemic 90,000 buys on Showtime PPV, according to Oscar De La Hoya.
In contrast, Gervonta’s promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr did over 1 million buys for his exhibition match against Logan Paul. As you can see, Tank Davis seriously needs an opponent that can help bring in PPV
Whether Joseph Diaz Jr is the guy that Gervonta increase buys in October is debatable. Obviously, there are far better choices than Diaz Jr for Tank to fight if he wants to make more money, but there would be a risk for him.
Mayweather Promotions seemingly don’t want to have Gervonta taking risks.
If he gets the fight, there will be many surprised boxing fans because they were hoping Gervonta would fight Teofimo Lopez, Ryan Garcia, or Devin Haney.
It’s confusing why Mayweather won’t pull the trigger on putting Tank in with those guys while they’re still unbeaten and there’s fan interest.
If Floyd thinks that he’ll let those fights marinate for Tank Davis until they’re huge, it could be a mistake because those guys could lose eventually.
He’s one of the options for Davis (25-0, 24 KOs) to fight following his victory over WBA ‘regular’ light welterweight champion Barrios on June 26th.
“Told there’s genuine interest in getting Gervonta back in the ring perhaps as soon as October. One opponent those on his side want to at least explore is Joseph Diaz Jr,” said Lance Pugmire on Twitter.
Diaz Jr should be fighting WBC 135-lb champion Haney next, not Tank.
If Diaz Jr chooses to fight Tank next, this would be the same time that a fighter fought for the WBC mandatory spot but then didn’t take the fight with Haney after. There must be some kind of hex that Haney has on him for him to be bypassed.
Diaz Jr, 28, doesn’t possess enough power to have a chance of beating Gervonta. That fight is a mismatch on paper.
You quote a hating, rival promoter’s PPV sales figures over the actual promoter and network? This is clearly a poorly written hit-piece of an article. Showtime and PBC said 200K buys. Have some journalistic integrity.
Tank would lose to Diaz cause he to is untested and looked beatable in all of his fights so far and he hasn’t fought anyone better than a c level fighter. His best fights were guys that are finished with their careers. Mayweather is using his playbook for tank and that’s to fight only people he knows he can beat because they past their prime or they are injured.