Tank Davis Gets The KO Win, But I Still Have Questions
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Tank Wins, BUT….
Lightweight boxing star Gervonta “Tank” Davis stopped Rolando Romero in six rounds to put an end to their feud as the main event of their PPV fight, in front of a record-breaking attendance crowd, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
I saw two things, Davis is one hell of a puncher, and I am starting to notice a troubling pattern with Davis, starting with him being very distracted by who was outside of the ring rather than who was in the ring.
Davis feels like a modern Aaron Pryor, aggressive, talented, and destructive, yet this marks four fights in a row in which Davis lost the early rounds in a fight. Romero, considered a prospect, moving into the realm of a contender, had a 1/3 of Davis’ amateur experience and less than half the professional fights of Davis, got Davis’ respect in the fight early, which saw Davis boxing, and looking to land the big left.
To be fair it landed in the sixth round and won him the fight.
That being said, if we compare Davis’ performance against Rolando Romero to Shakur Stevenson’s performance against Oscar Valdez, you can’t compare. Stevenson beat a legend and started his climb not just to fame, but to boxing immortality as a legend.
Davis is a star, in fact, the biggest star of the division outside of Ryan Garcia. Mayweather Promotions has done an exceptional job building him to this point, but now we have to understand what Davis wants us the observer to view him as. I view him as on course to be an all-time great, and to be that, we need to see him fight the icons of his era, especially as this week we’re seeing Devin Haney and George Kambosos Jnr, fighting for all four belts, that are widely considered, for lack of a better word, real.
Davis right not just looks like a musician, but in many ways fills arenas like a modern musician, and is beating credible opponents such as Leo Santa Cruz, Mario Barrios, Isaac Cruz, and now Rolando Romero. To me, each fight is credible, but from a purist standpoint, we’re seeing two of the best lightweights fighting next week, and with now a shortlist of elite fighters in the division, and Davis obviously one of them – selfishly, we want to see Davis in with the very best, as I think the Calvin Ford and Kenny Ellis produced fighter from Baltimore could very well be the best fighter in this division right now.
I just want to see it with my own eyes.
Davis, to me, won, but in my eyes, I was more impressed by Romero not ever looking outclassed until being knocked out in the sixth round as everything from experience to competition faced, and accolades stated Romero shouldn’t have been able to stay competitive or even with Davis, and he did.
I want to see Davis separate more in fights, moving forward, but to be fair, I am holding him to the standard, Shakur Stevenson set.
undercard.
Middleweight Erislandy Lara, a two-division champion, stopped Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan. The fight was enjoyable but saw Lara, one of the greatest Cuban boxers ever, who no longer has the same legs under him at nearly 40-years-old, getting himself put on the ropes and getting hit a bit more to the body than I’d like to see. That being said, Lara won by a technical knockout, and now is set up for a big fight, which some have alluded to might be a bout against one of his former trainer partners in either Jermell or Jermall Charlo.
Jesus Ramos Jr. grudge match win over Luke Santamaria was weird in a lot of way. Santamaria fought like a squid and made Ramos Jr. look out of sorts at times, despite this – a solid showing by Ramos Jr. It just didn’t standout.
Eduardo Ramirez, who reminded me even more of Miguel Marriaga, in his close majority decision win over Luis Melendez, saw me take away two things. Melendez is a lot better boxer than I thought, and Thomas Mattice is way better than people are giving him credit, as I felt he has performance was more dominant than what Ramirez did, but didn’t get the nod. In a perfect world, a fight between Eduardo Ramirez vs. Thomas Mattice would be an interesting bout to create some light on the division.
154 lber Luis “Cuba” Arias had a rough decision win over Jimmy Williams, a man best known for beating Yuri Foreman, as Arias seemed to load up too much on power punches. I believe in Arias, but this fight felt like Arias tried to make a statement, and instead made the fight harder than he needed to make it.
Welterweight Jalil Hackett continues to look like the future of Mayweather Promotions along with “Dynamite” David Lopez, as Hackett got a KO win, and is doing what you want all young talented fighters to do early in their career.
Off-TV
According to BoxRec, the daughter of Kenny Ellis, Mia Ellis, one of Gervonta Davis’ coaches, along with Calvin Ford, who is a life-long friend of Gervonta Davis, lost a decision to Jaica Pavilus. I wish we could’ve seen this bout, I am curious to see what happened.
Also on the card, Adrian Benton got a win on the undercard.
Clubs Show Results
Cem Kilic versus Aaron Coley was called off, as Coley was injured prior to the fight.
Heavyweight Otto Wallin, a sleeper in the heavyweight division, got a lackluster win over Rydell Booker. It looked like a hungover fight, as Dillian Whyte “pulled out of a fight” only for a Whyte vs. Fury fight to be announced not long after. This felt like an athlete depression fight in which Wallin is hoping to fight on the world-class level, and fought down in competition.
Standout amateur Joseph Hicks got a KO win on the undercard, as well as Shohjahon Ergashev got a ten-round decision, and Ferris Dixon Jr. got a KO win.
Daniel Haro of Merced, Ca won his bout in Mexico.
Greg Outlaw and Wilfrido Buelvas fought to a first-round no contest. Anthony Peterson got a sixth-round KO on this card, and Domnique Crowder got a win.
