Two-time super featherweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis went face to face with former unified champion Yuriorkis Gamboa Tuesday at a press conference in Atlanta to preview their battle for the vacant WBA lightweight title taking place December 28 on Showtime.
Gervonta Davis: “Coming up in weight is something that I know I have to do to be great. Gamboa is a tough opponent. He’s a gold medalist who hits hard. I’m going to test the waters and December 28 I’m going to show everyone what I can do…the fans should expect action on December 28. I’m going to give it my all and I’m going to put him down on his face.”
Yuriorkis Gamboa: “When I came out to Baltimore and knocked out Roman Martinez, I proved to the naysayers that I have a lot left in the tank. On December 28, my goal is to continue to prove everyone wrong…I know that we’re both coming to win, but in my heart and my soul, I see myself winning on December 28. I’ll leave it all in the ring to do so.”
The championship showdown, taking place at the State Farm Arena, is the first boxing title fight to take place in Atlanta since Evander Holyfield vs. Vaughn Bean on September 19, 1998.
Tank Davis is an improving fighter, but by no means an elitist yet. Basically, his youthful speed and power mixed in with his developing boxing skills makes him a threat to many opponents, but not all of them. Davis admires those fighters who come forward, have minimal head movement, and are sitting targets for his arsenal of punches. Will be interesting when he faces a slick fighter with head movement that does not cater to his style that says “hit me” with decent power.
Well put, Scooby.
Davis “has to” fight and win against Gamboa in order to get a shot at Loma.
I think the fight will be real and interesting. Gamboa is comparatively still in better shape than Kovalev at his weight class. In other words, I think that Gamboa will give Davis fits for a few rounds and may possibly even score a knock down. Anything but a win by Davis, however, would be quite an upset.
My prediction is a win on points by Davis.
Not sure how much Gamboa has since he’s almost 13 years older than this kid Tank. But eventually Tank is gonna have to fight bigger names…
I don’t know if Gamboa will last long. We all know his chin is not that solid. He still has the skills and speed but not for 12 rounds. Davis will probably stop him in the first 6-7 rounds.
And he also doesn’t do well at these higher weights. His beat weight was 126.
Gamboa is not washed up. This is gonna be a great fight!
Uh not an elitist? 2 X world super featherweight champion? Not much further to go up than that. 22-0. 21 KOS. Just a smite of power. Amateur record of 206–15? You don’t achieve that being a one dimensional fighter. I see him going through Lomanchenko and that “Kingry” or whatever the f**k his name is. Gotta love him at 5′-5″. Height and reach can be an advantage, but throw in the important factors of tenacity, gameness, skill, and hard punches and height and reach only become minor factors in the whole equation.
And last but not least, Haney is finished.
When Tank fights some top names that can pose a real threat to his resume, I will tag him with the name “elitist”.
Still waiting on him to fight some REAL names to really see him shine….. Gamboa was cherry picked, older, and like Kovalev, mileage on the body.
I agree Joe. He is challenging for world titles and his power looks devastating for those weights. Gamboa is a solid opponent for his first fight at 135. Most fighters like to take a warm-up bout at a weight before they challenge the top guys. Gamboa is a top name and is live in this bout because of how he can move. I’m hoping this sets up a Loma fight. But Loma is waiting to round up 4 titles which is BS because he basically got stripped in my opinion for not getting ordered to fight Haney. So the earliest a bout could be would be July. But I’m sure Loma will move back down to face Farmer and claim they’re doing what Davis didn’t do. Even though Davis was already getting criticism for the Farmer fight saying he should move up and fight Loma. Round and round we go.
Gamboa is damaged goods, & getting old with suspect chin, will not last with Tank!
If Gamboa had been more active and had a couple of tough wins against top notch opposition I may have been excited about this one but I think Davis wins early. Gamboa has been so poorly managed it is a joke.