Commentator Tim Bradley blasted Gervonta Davis for facing yet another soft opponent, Lamont Roach, for his next title defense of his WBA lightweight strap in January. Bradley feels that the 11-year pro Tank Davis is the equivalent of a “30-year-old prospect” due to the continual weak opposition he’s faced since turning professional in 2013.
Bradley points out that PBC has created a great product, building Tank (30-0, 28 K) to make him look great with their skillful matchmaking, but he sees it as fake. He wonders what they are afraid of by choosing not to match the Baltimore native Tank Davis against good opposition like Shakur Stevenson.
Carefully Selected Opposition
Bradley says Tank could have fought Vasily Lomachenko five to six years ago instead of waiting until he turned 37 before showing interest in fighting him.
It was a bad move on PBC’s part to match Tank against Lamont Roach, because that made it clear in the eyes of fans that were slow on the uptake what his career is all about. Tank is just a moneymaker, and his opponents have always been well-vetted to be deemed a non-threat before the fights were made. Tank has NEVER been in a 50-50 fight where he had a chance of losing going in. He’s always been the favorite, and that’s not by accident.
“Tank is going to do what Tank has always done. You know what that is. The fans ain’t stupid,” said commentator Tim Bradley to Fighthype about Gervonta Davis. “You’ve got your Tank supporters out there, who feel, ‘This guy didn’t want to fight,’ and all this stuff.’”
Tank’s fans don’t follow boxing closely enough to know that he’s always being matched against fighters who have no chance of winning. They naively believe that everyone that Tank is matched against is elite-level, the creme de la creme, which has never been the case.
“Before Shakur signed to fight Joe Cordina, that was the perfect time for him to negotiate with Shakur,” said Bradley. “It seems to me, and this isn’t just me hating. This is factual. Tell me the last true A-dog where he [Tank Davis] didn’t suck him down in weight so he can have an advantage, saying, ‘He’s too big’ and this and that like he did with [Ryan] Garcia.
“Who was the last? That was years ago. It was [Jose] Pedraza, and that was years ago [2017]. Since then, who else? Frank Martin, he’s green. To me, you’re like a 30-year-old prospect, dog,” said Bradley about Tank Davis with the way he’s been matched during his 11-year career.”
The Pedraza fight took place seven years ago, and even that was a mismatch. Pedraza couldn’t punch, and he had no chance against a young Tank Davis in 2017. All of Tank’s fights before and since have been sure-thing matches against the softest of soft opposition. When he did take a semi-risky match against Ryan Garcia, he stuck weight stipulations into the contract.
“Fight the best, fight Shakur. ‘Oh, he tried to fight Lomachenko, but Loma didn’t want that smoke. He retired Loma.’ You could have fought that five or six years ago, but you were in protective custody. PBC protective custody. They built a hell of a product [Tank Davis],” said Bradley.
“Makeup covers up a lot of imperfections. Matchmaking can do the same thing. What are you scared of?” said Bradley.
It was obvious years ago that Tank Davis was being matched against nothing but weak opposition. It’s surprising ing that it’s taken so long for the fans to catch on to the hustle to see it for what it is. Why did Tank only want the WBA ‘regular’ title rather than the main WBA belt? If he had the upper WBA belt, he would have had to fight better opposition, which wasn’t part of his program.
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