ATLANTA–Antonio Davis is an educated young man. Unlike many of his fellow boxers, he does not rely on old, exhausted cliches to tell you what he thinks about his business affairs. Most underdogs would try to feed you the cliches about the favorite. You know, I’ll catch the champ snoozing. The champ will be overconfident. Fighting in front of his hometown fans will be a burden on the champ. And similar garbage..
Antonio “TRex” Davis is too intelligent to talk that smack. He climbs into the ring in Santo Domingo on Monday, December 18, against undefeated WBO junior lightweight champion Joan Guzman and Davis is not expecting it to be a holiday excursion. (The bout and an all-star card, co-promoted by Jay Boxing and SEDEFIR, will take place at the Palacio Virgilio Travieso Soto.)
“No, not at all,” the 34-year-old challenger who has a computer science degree from Coppin State, said. “I am sure that Guzman is training his butt off for this fight. Not so much because of me but because it is his homecoming. It is a holiday time show and he wants to impress his friends and his countrymen. I accept all that. Under all those circumstances, no I do not think Guzman is taking me lightly.”
His record in two sports, wrestling and boxing, indicate that the 22-2 (11 KOs) Davis should not be lightly regarded by anybody in the 130-pound weight class.
Davis was 119-pound South Carolina state high school wrestling champion and then he wrestled at Coppin State (Maryland) for three years. All that gymnasium time interested him in putting on the gloves and he had a 30-5 amateur career which, he said, included winning a bronze medal at 132 pounds in the 2002 Pan Am Games in Puerto Rico.
The Georgia resident, who was once trained by Ronnie Shields, has nothing to be ashamed of in his two pro defeats. He was matched too soon with puncher Edner “Cherry Bomb” Cherry and was stopped in two rounds. Davis then reeled off 16 wins in succession before dropping a 12-round majority decision to Koba Gogoladze, a rugged southpaw, in Detroit. The left handed “Cobra” had a 20-1 record going into that bout.
Cherry is now ranked No. 5 by the WBA and No. 6 by the WBC at lightweight. Gogoladze is the second-ranked contender in Guzman’s division and is the NABO champion.
“I am a boxer-puncher,” Davis said. “I think I have pretty good hand and foot speed. I made a mistake fighting Cherry then. I was at the show and I got conned. The promoter told they would have to cancel the whole show and that the guy was not on my level. As far as Koba, well if that fight was further south and not in Detroit, I think they would have given me the decision. Koba was holding all the time and they let him get away with it. To me, they were both learning experiences.”
So what does Davis know about the dazzling Guzman? Not too much, it seems.
“I saw a little bit of him on HBO and Manny Steward was being critical,” Davis said. “He said that Guzman was a great talent but was not fighting at the high level he should.”
Come December 18, Davis won’t rely on second-hand information. He will personally test Guzman and, Davis said, the pro-Guzman crowd won’t make a difference.
“Once that opening bell rings, it is on,” Davis said. “Then the crowd won’t matter. It’s just me and him and I intend to win this.”
That’s his sincere feeling. “TRex” Davis leaves the tired, old cliches to others. He is a fighter who is going to the Dominican Republic to fight to the best of his ability.
You don’t have to have a computer science degree to respect that.