Leo Santa Cruz says Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis really struggled badly to make the 130-pound weight limit for last Friday’s weigh-in, and he says he looked soft and unconfident when he saw him up close.
Tank (23-0, 22 KOs) made the weight in weighing in at 129 3/4 pounds, but he looked small and dried out as an old prune from the dehydration.
You could tell from looking at the 25-year-old Davis that he put himself through the wringer to get down to the 130-lb limit to challenge WBA super featherweight champion Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs).
If Davis is weight drained, he’s not going to have the same energy as he normally does, which could cost him the fight. Anyone who has dropped a lot of weight before knows they don’t feel as strong as they were previously. But Davis had no choice.
He wouldn’t walk into the weigh-in at 155 and be allowed to fight Santa Cruz. If Davis wants to meltdown to fight guys smaller than himself to have an advantage over them, he has to take the weight to make it fair.
Davis is lucky that there isn’t a morning check weight because then he would really have problems.
Santa Cruz, 32, and Davis will be fighting tonight on Showtime pay-per-view at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
A crowd of 10,000+ is expected to turn up for the fight, but those boxing fans are expected to overwhelmingly support Santa Cruz.
Gervonta will gas says Santa Cruz
“It looked like he struggled to make weight, but he made weight, and that’s all that matters,” Santa Cruz said to Fighthype.
“Tank is going to gas out and get frustrated. Hopefully, I can take his punch. This fight is going to take me to the next level, and hopefully to the pound-for-pound.
“He didn’t look big,” Santa Cruz said in him, sizing Davis up at the weigh-in.
“He looked soft and didn’t look confident. Maybe it was too much to make weight. He was straining. I want to prove people wrong and get the win,” said Santa Cruz.
Tank may gas tonight, as he looked exhausted in the later rounds in his last contest against Yuriorkis Gamboa last December. That fight took place at 135, and yet Davis still struggled to make weight.
Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe isn’t telling the boxing public that Tank is a natural 140-pounder at this point for all intents and purposes.
So for Tank to have to time off weight to get back down to 130, it’s a major undertaking. It’s like trying to carve Mount Rushmore. Yeah, Tank did it in trimming off the fat and muscle to get down to 130 for the weigh-in temporarily, but at what cost?
Tank’s walking around weight is likely in the mid-150s, and that’s a muscular weight. It’s a major ordeal for Davis to get down to 135 and 130, and he won’t be able to do it for too much longer.
If the 5’5″ Davis moves up to 140, his body would be happy, his lack of height would be a detriment to him against the 5’10” champions Jose Ramirez and Josh Taylor.
Hearn: Tank Davis will rehydrate 20+ lbs
“It’s a good fight, but I kind of feel they’re in the wrong divisions,” said Matchroom Boxing Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social about Tank Davis and Santa Cruz.
“I kind of feel like Leo is a bantamweight moving up to super-featherweight. Gervonta is going to rehydrate God knows, 20 pounds, 22 pounds?
I honestly think he’s going t be too big for him. That’s a good fight,” said Hearn.
It’s reasonable to assume that Tank will rehydrate 20 to 22 lbs and walk in the ring tonight at a swelled up 150+ against Santa Cruz.
Putting all that weight back on may result in Davis feeling sluggish and not having the energy that he needs to fight effectively in the second half of the contest. That’s obviously what Santa Cruz is counting on.
