Ahead of a potential super fight with Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis is drawing acclaim from across the boxing world.
One man who has made his admiration clear is UK promoter, Eddie Hearn – even attempting to sign ‘Tank’ up to a promotional deal not so long ago.
Despite a relatively strange relationship, Hearn maintains that Davis is a huge talent. The 28-year-old from Baltimore is undefeated in four weight classes with all of his victories but two coming by way of knockout.
The promoter sang ‘Tank’s praises to The DAZN Boxing Show.
“I first watched Gervonta Davis live, beat the living s**t out of Pedraza at the Barclay’s Centre to win the world title. I thought to myself ‘oh my god, this kid is an animal.’
Now he loses a little bit of that up at 135 and up at 140 – because I think that was at 130 when he won his first title. And look at what Pedraza’s done recently. He’s consistently performing against 140 guys all the time.”
He’s been doing that a long time, Gervonta … he’s still not really boxed any elite, elite guys, but he’s boxed at a world level consistently for a long time.”
As far as the Ryan Garcia fight goes, Hearn still believes it’s Davis’ to lose – but not without being tested by the undefeated ‘KingRy.’
“He’s gonna get hit against Ryan Garcia, right? Ryan Garcia is very long, he has very fast hands. Where he [Davis] struggled a little bit against Hector Garcia was the range. Well Ryan Garcia has even more range than Hector Garcia, and he punches harder.”
“I give Ryan Garcia a shot in this fight, no question about it. But if you’re asking me who wins, I say ‘Tank’ Davis.”
As an uninvolved party, the main thing for Hearn is actually seeing the fight materialise.
“Let’s hope… I mean is this fight gonna happen? I was disappointed and worried that Ryan wasn’t there [at the Hector Garcia fight] because if it’s done, and if it’s signed, and if the venue’s agreed and all these things, you’d a million percent be there. But it’s not really Ryan’s style.”
The Matchroom man may have a point. Since this interview aired, Garcia’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, has cast some doubt on the once thought to be solid plans.
He set a deadline to receive a contract and has been quiet on the matter since then. Fans will be hopeful that it will still go ahead given that both fighters seem focused on that being the case.