Promoter Eddie Hearn says Frank Martin is an “easy” fight for Gervonta Davis when the two meet in the spring/early summer on Amazon Prime PPV in a PBC event.
Hearn had offered Tank Davis a massive deal to fight Conor Benn, which could have seen him pull in $25 million. It’s doubtful that the 29-year-old Baltimore native will earn anything close to that total by fighting Martin, and he may regret turning down Hearn’s offer.
Ultra-hardcore boxing fans like the Tank vs. Martin fight; it won’t register with casuals who have never heard of or seen Frank fight before.
The ones noted how Martin got easily outboxed by his last opponent, Artem Harutyunyan, last July. Martin would have been lost if not for Harutyunyan emptying his gas tank in the second half of the fight and losing a decision.
Lack of Star Power
Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn likes the Davis vs. Martin fight but doesn’t see it doing “mad numbers” on PPV, which makes sense. #2 WBA Martin (18-0, 12 KOs) isn’t a household name at this early stage of his career, and it will be a tough sale.
It’s going to be a huge drop off in PPV numbers for Gervonta from his previous fight against Ryan Garcia, with the two of them pulling in over 1 million buys. Ryan had a lot to do with that due to his 11 million Instagram followers, and Tank isn’t going to have the same social media boost by facing the 30-year-old Frank Martin.
“It’s alright. It’s an easy fight for Tank. Frank Martin is a good little fighter. I don’t think it’s going to do mad numbers, but it’s a good fight,” said promoter Eddie Hearn to Fighthype, reacting to the news of Gervonta Davis fighting Frank Martin next in the spring.
Missed Opportunities for Davis
WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Tank Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) could have chosen well-known fighters like Shakur Stevenson, Conor Benn, Vasily Lomachenko, or Devin Haney.
Assuming Tank wins, he needs to start fighting better opposition because his career is marching by, and he’s failing to take risky fights against top-level opposition. He should have already fought Shakur, Haney, and Lomachenko a long time ago, but he hasn’t shown the risk-taking mindset to face quality opposition.
Martin is more of a fringe level at best and would fall apart against Loma, Shakur, William Zepeda, Raymond Muratalla, and Andy Cruz.
