Matchroom Boxing USA promoter Eddie Hearn isn’t pleased that Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis has vacated his WBA super featherweight title, and moved up to lightweight without fighting IBF champ Tevin Farmer. It was a doable fight, but Hearn didn’t offer Gervonta the type of money he was looking to get.
Hearn wanted the 24-year-old unbeaten Davis (22-0, 21 KOs) to stay around the 130-lb division long enough to battle Farmer (30-4-1, 6 KOs) in a unification fight. However, Hearn blew his chance of making the fight when he gave Davis and his promoters at Mayweather Promotions a low-ball $5 million offer. Davis countered by saying he wanted $10 million+, but that was a figure that Hearn wasn’t going to entertain apparently.
Hearn says Tank Davis moved to lightweight without negotiating with him
“He’s moved up to lightweight now. We never even negotiated,” said Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn to Fighthype about Gervonta Davis. “I said $5 million [to fight Tevin Farmer]. He said $10 [million]. Can we meet in the middle? He was told not to, and he was done as he was told,” said Hearn.
It’s clear that Gervonta made it know what his asking price was for him to fight Davis, but Hearn didn’t give him the money. As the saying goes, ‘show me the money.’ Hearn was talking about wanting to meet Gervonta halfway between $5 million and $10 million. That wasn’t going to get the job done. It’s possible that Hearn can try and sweeten the offer for Davis to fight Farmer, but it won’t be a unification fight.
Gervonta has already vacated his WBA super featherweight title as last week. As such, if Farmer wants to fight him, he’s probably going to need to come up to lightweight to make the fight happen. The casual boxing fans don’t care too much about the titles. They already know that Tank Davis is a huge talent, and they’re not going to mind if one of the belts isn’t on the line.
Leonard Ellerbe says Gervonta is in demand by “everyone”
“Everyone wants to fight Tank. Not just Farmer,” said Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe to Fighthype. “All the champions want to fight him. Some of the champions at 126 want to move up, and fight Tank. That’s what happens when you have the star power, and everyone knows that Tank is the killer. He’s a killer…I and Mayweather promotions know about building stars. We’ve built the biggest star ever in this sport [Floyd Mayweather Jr].
We know a thing or two about building stars. We’re our own boss. We have a plan for Tank in the future. Nobody likes the plan, but I don’t care. Tank don’t care. Floyd don’t care. Al [Haymon] don’t care. We’re going to do what’s best for our fighter, and we’re going to take Gervonta Davis to the greatest heights of this sport. Gervonta Davis is going to be the biggest star in the sport, and he’s going to knock a lot of guys out along the way. He’s special,” said Ellerbe about Tank Davis.
