Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis likes the idea of fighting former WBA 140-lb champion Regis Prograis, and so does his promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr and Leonard Ellerbe.
Tank Davis (24-0, 23 KOs) will be moving up to light welterweight next month to take on WBA ‘regular’ 140-lb champion Mario Barrios (26-0, 17 KOs) on June 26th on Showtime pay-per-view at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
As of now, it’s still too early to know if Davis, 26, will move back down to 135 of 130 immediately or at all if he’s victorious over WBA light welterweight champion Barrios in their headliner clash next month.
If Davis stays at 140, he’ll have to deal with a fighter like Prograis (26-1, 22 KOs), who already had his sights set on fighting Barrios before the match was taken away from him.
Gervonta Davis likes Prograis fight
“Tank loves that fight, man,” said Leonard Ellerbe to Fighthype when asked about his thoughts on Tank Davis fighting Regis Prograis if he gets past Barrios.
“First things first; he’s got a dangerous task in front of him with Mario Barrios. He [Tank] loves that fight [against Prograis], and I like that fight too.
“And Floyd is ecstatic about it, ecstatic. I don’t want to say,” said Ellerbe when asked why Mayweather likes a potential fight between Prograis and Gervonta Davis. “He loves that fight.
“Barrios [first], and whatever Tank decides, and we decide what it is. First things first, he has a tremendous task in front of him to get through Barrios. That’s a great fight,” said Ellerbe.
We don’t know whether Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe is clout-chasing by mentioning Prograis’ name to build up the smallish 5’5 1/2″ Tank Davis’ credibility as a challenger for the much bigger 5’10” champion Barrios.
Boxing fans view the Davis-Barrios fight as a cherry-pick by Tank and his promoters at Mayweather promotions.
They point out that Barrios, 26, is the weakest link among the champions at 140 and that he’s the lowest hanging fruit on the tree in the division among the belt-holders.
As such, fans have difficulty seeing Tank’s fight against Barrios as a good one because this is viewed as a one-off for him.
It’s believed that as soon as Tank beats the WBA secondary 140-lb champion, Barrios, on June 26th, he’ll vacate the title and scurry back down to the safety of the 135 or 130-lb divisions.
What Ellerbe could be doing by suggesting that Tank might stay at 140 to take on a dangerous fighter like Prograis is he’s planting the seed in the eyes of fans that his fight against Barrios isn’t a calculated opportunistic ‘Cherry-pick’ on his part and that he could stay in the division to take on Prograis, and the likes of Josh Taylor and Jose Ramirez.
“Yeah, I thought Joshua would beat Fury,” said Ellerbe in changing the subject. “Only because everyone is underestimating Joshua, and that works to his advantage. No pressure.
“The other guy [Fury] does a lot of this [Ellerbe holds up his hand to mimic Fury talking], but it is what it is. I really do [like Fury’s trash-talking]. He’s good at that,” said Ellerbe.
Well, there’s no point in talking about a fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
Thanks to Fury, that fight is off. Now, Fury has got to try and beat Deontay Wilder and hope that Joshua wins his fight against WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk on August 21 or 28.
Fury lost his arbitration case on Monday in a surprise ruling, which means he has to fight Wilder in a trilogy match by September 15th. The ‘Gypsy King’ had been trying to walk away from his contractual rematch with Wilder to get a bigger payday against Joshua.
