A big fight is in the works between Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) and Leo Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) for the summer in Los Angeles on pay-per-view. Mike Coppinger is the first one on the news of the Davis-Santa Cruz fight.
Obviously this is a business-level type of fight and not much of sporting value. Santa Cruz doesn’t belong at 135, and some would say he doesn’t fit at 130 either. The thinly built Santa Cruz started his career out at 115 [super flyweight], and he was at his best at bantamweight.
While Santa Cruz has captured world titles at 118, 122 and 126, he’s not always fought the best in those weight classes. So for Santa Cruz to be moving up to lightweight to face Gervonta Davis, it essentially amounts to a two-division jump up weight.
What Santa Cruz will be dealing with is similar to what we saw with lightweight Mikey Garcia moving up two divisions to take on IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. last year in March 2019. Mikey wasn’t a threat to Spence, and the fight ended up being a huge bore.
So with Santa Cruz vs. Tank Davis, it’s the same thing, and the fight has no sporting value. It’s a business fight. It’s like taking a high school football team and throwing them in against an NFL team. Santa Cruz will likely be stomped by the much bigger Davis, who looks like a middleweight in between fights.
The talks are at the advanced stage and it’s looking good. Davis posted a fight poster of him with Santa Cruz, and that tells you that he’s very serious about wanting this match.
Santa Cruz, who only recently moved up to 130, would now be moving to 135 to face Tank Davis for his WBA ‘regular’ lightweight title. For all intents and purposes, Santa Cruz will be moving up two divisions to face Davis. That’s a big jump up in weight for Santa Cruz, and it’s going to be hard for him to compete, let alone win.
Davis’ battles with his weight make this fight a harder one for Santa Cruz because he could be facing a light-welterweight on the night instead of a lightweight.
For fans to get their money’s worth, the Davis vs. Santa Cruz will need a good undercard, because their fight may turn out to be a huge mismatch. There needs to be something on the card to keep boxing fans from walking away from the event feeling angry and vowing never to order another PPV fight again. That’s why it’s a good idea to stack the undercard with great fights. You don’t want to burn your bridges with the fans by putting on a mismatch on pay-per-view for the main event, and then have an even worse undercard.
