Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis will be moving up two weight divisions to challenge WBA ‘regular’ light welterweight champion Mario Barrios on June 26th on Showtime pay-per-view.
Gervonta recently beat super featherweight Leo Santa Cruz by a sixth-round knockout to win the WBA 130-lb title from him last October on Showtime PPV in San Antonio, Texas.
If Tank stayed at 130, he could have taken on WBC champion Oscar Valdez, who has expressed interest in fighting him.
It seems like a senseless move for Tank Davis NOT to fight Valdez because that would be a much bigger fight than the Barrios match.
With that said, the risk would be a lot higher for Tank against a talented fighter like Valdez than it would against Barrios.
Tank taking on the weakest link at 140
Marios Barrios is clearly the weakest link among the champions at 140 and perhaps the only guy that Tank can beat.
Tank, 26, is looking to become a three-division world champion after having won titles at 130 and 135. It’s believed that if Tank beats Barrios to capture his WBA 140lb belt, he’ll vacate it rather than stay in the weight class and be stuck with no one to fight.
The top fighters in the light welterweight division are IBF/WBA champ Josh Taylor and WBC/WBO champ Jose Ramirez.
Those guys are with Top Rank, and even if Tank could get a fight against either of them, which he probably can’t, he would be too small.
Those guys are huge, and they can really fight. Mayweather Promotions wouldn’t likely be on board with letting Tank fight Ramirez or Taylor due to the probability of him getting beaten up and possibly knocked out.
You can argue that there are weight classes for a reason, and Tank would look completely out of place inside the ring with either of those two.
But in facing a flawed champion like Barrios, Tank has a good chance of winning because he’s facing a guy that is levels below the talent of Josh Taylor, Jose Ramirez, and Regis Prograis as well.
It’s a questionable move by Tank (24-1, 23 KOs) to be leaving the 130 and 135-lb weight classes where there are plenty of lucrative fights for him to go up to 140 to take on secondary WBA champion Barios (26-0, 17 KOs).
Barrios, 5’10”, will enjoy a huge 5-inch height 4-inch reach advantage over the 5’5″ Tank, and that could make things difficult for the Mayweather Promotions fighter.
Erickson Lubin vs. Jeison Rosario
In the co-feature bout, Erickson ‘The Hammer’ Lubin will face former IBF/WBC junior middleweight champion Jeison ‘Banana’ Rosario in a WBC 154-lb title eliminator. The winner will be mandatory to WBC champion Jermell Charlo.
Lubin (23-1, 16 KOs) has looked in winning his last four fights since losing to Jermell Charlo by a first-round knockout in 2017. Whether Lubin has improved enough to beat Jermell in a rematch is the big question.
Lubin might be good enough to beat the heavy-handed Rosario (20-2, 14 KOs), but it might be a different story if and when Lubin gets back in with Charlo.