Bruce Carrington doesn’t recommend Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis fighting Shakur Stevenson next in a lightweight unification clash due to the low interest the fight would have.
Featherweight contender Carrington states that boxing fans wouldn’t be excited at seeing Tank-Stevenson next due to Shakur’s last performance against Artem Harutyunyan on July 6th on ESPN. The fight was dull, similar to Shakur’s previous one against Edwin De Los Santos last November.
Another problem is Stevenson isn’t well-known to casual boxing fans yet. While hardcore fans know who Shakur is, many intensely dislike his fighting style, viewing him as ‘boring’ and not worth the time taken out of a Saturday night to watch him perform.
Carrington feels that for a fight between Gervonta and WBC lightweight champion Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) to be big, Shakur needs two impressive wins coming “back-to-back” before a fight between him and Tank would sell.
“Right now, no. I feel because these guys are young. They have time to build it up, and because of how the audience has been taking Shakur’s last performance, the interest in it is low,” said Bruce Carrington to MillCity Boxing about whether Gervonta Davis should fight Shakur Stevenson next.
“For it to be big again, Shakur has to have exciting performances at least back-to-back performances.”
The downside of Tank Davis not fighting Stevenson next is that he may continue to perform poorly, which will decrease the low interest fans already have in that matchup.
It would make sense for the Baltimore native Tank and his management at PBC to delay the fight with Shakur if they believed him capable of turning things around and looking spectacular in a couple of his fights. However, Shakur won’t be able to look good and will continue to bore fans for the remainder of his career. He’s not built to be an exciting fighter.
Ideally, what Shakur should do is fight these contenders and be more aggressive, standing in the pocket:
- Edwin De Los Santos
- Raymond Muratalla
Shakur needs to show the public that he can beat De Los Santos without moving around the ring, trying to evade his aggression like he showed last November. Stevenson blamed his poor performance against De Los Santos on injuries. However, when Shakur chose not to pursue a rematch with him to prove that he could fight better when healthy, fans saw it as a case of him never being hurt.
Shakur doesn’t have the heart to fight aggressors fighters like De Los Santos and Jeremiah Nakathilia and never will.
‘Tank’ Davis, the WBA lightweight champion, needs a good opponent that will sell on PPV now that Vasily Lomachenko has chosen to sit for the remainder of 2024. That was a fight that Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) and his management wanted in November in a cross-platform PPV event.
A better option for Tank Davis to choose for his next fight in November would be an all-action type of fighter that would make it interesting for the fans. That would be one of these two:
– William Zepeda
– Isaac ‘Pitbull
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