Gary Russell Jr. lit into Gervonta Davis and Devin Haney in an interview, trashing them for being weak. The former featherweight champion Russell says WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Tank Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) is “bamboozling” the public, “Picking and choosing” weak opposition instead of the fighters that fans want to see him. This is done to ensure that Tank doesn’t get beaten.
Tank Davis has been holding the secondary WBA lightweight belt for ages, which has kept him protected from having to fight the dangers that he would have to face if he held the main title.
Russell doesn’t think too much of Tank’s latest choice of opponent, Lamont Roach, who was dug up from the super featherweight division. He says Tank is trying to
“Tank has been fighting a lot of people that [fans] don’t want to see him fight anyway. I could have seen that coming,” said Gary Russell Jr. to Fighthype, reacting to Gervonta Davis handpicking Lamont Roach from the super featherweight division rather than selecting a lightweight.
Gervonta has been fighting opposition that fans had no interest in seeing for his 11-year career. The only instance where he fought someone that fans wanted to see was when he fought Ryan Garcia, and that was considered a mismatch. Whatever chance Ryan had of winning, Tank’s weight stipulations that he stuck in the contract drained it right out of him.
“I don’t think he can do that for much longer. I believe the fans as well as the media networks like yourself that have the platform and have the ability to push,” Russell said when asked how much longer Tank Davis can get away with cherry-picking weak opposition the way he’s been doing his entire 11-year career.
Tank will likely get away with soft opposition up until he retires because he doesn’t bring in large PPV numbers, and he’s got a loyal following. They don’t care if he doesn’t fight great opposition because many of them don’t know anything about the sport.
As far as they’re concerned, Lamont Roach is elite. However, fighting the kind of opposition that Tank has faced since he turned pro in 2013 will doom him to lower PPV numbers for the remainder of his career. He’s never going to be someone who brings in 1 million buys because he’s not fighting the opposition that people want to see.
“Y’all are the ones who are being bamboozled. Y’all want to see the best compete against the best, and the people that y’all feel as though are the best, they’re not trying to compete against the best,” said Russell. “They’d rather fight someone that y’all don’t even know. Y’all never heard of them.”
If Tank’s management cared about matching him against the best, he would be scheduled to fight Edwin De Los Santos on December 14th, not Lamont Roach. He would have fought Vasily Lomachenko in 2017 when he was first called out by him.
“Everybody is like, ‘Damn, why is he fighting this person?’ Nah, that [stuff] is too difficult for them. Your favorite fighters are suckers out here. That’s a fact. A period on that. It ain’t no perception. Tank is picking and choosing. I always say, ‘It ain’t nothing personal,’ but Tank got to take it personally if I’m saying, I think you’re a [wimp] because you’re fighting someone that’s not a dog.
“I don’t want to discredit Lamont Roach. I know Lamong Roach. He’s a good guy. I know his father. They’re all cool, but there are levels to everything. Don’t think that you’re fighting someone from the area and making it seem like it’s Baltimore vs. some dog from the area.
“He’s picking and choosing. At some point, when does pride, when does ego, when does integrity kick in and say, ‘I really do want to see if I am as good as I really think I am? I want to try to do better.’ Where is that at in the sport today?
“If they’re both 100% healthy. I don’t think Lamont has a chance of winning this fight. In my personal opinion, I don’t think Lamont is going to win the fight. It’ll be interesting in the beginning half of the fight. In the latter half of the fight, Tank is going to start walking him down and start touching him. KO or TKO, one of the two,” said Russell Jr. on the outcome of the Tank vs. Roach fight.
“It’ll be a money grab type of thing for Lamont. He’ll get a little money, but it’s not the career-defining [stuff]. Tank fighting Lamont Roach is not a career-defining fight. It’s not a fight where people will think that he’s at risk or Lamont is a threat to him.
“I don’t think that’s the man route. That’s some sucka [stuff],” said Russell Jr about Devin Haney suing Ryan Garcia. “I think that’s some sucka [stuff] on Haney’s behalf or Bill’s behalf. I don’t think Devin is doing it by himself. I’m pretty sure his father is behind the scenes or in front of the scenes doing that [stuff].
“But I don’t consider that the man route. We’re two competitors. We’re two fighters. I personally don’t believe that taking steroids or whatever it was that Ryan supposedly had. It doesn’t help with your actual skills. If you’re a bum a** fighter and you take steroids or you take enhancements drugs. Please believe you’re still going to be a bum a** fighter,” said Russell.
Gary thinks that Devin’s dad, Bill Haney, came up with the idea to initiate a lawsuit against Ryan. If that was the case, Devin should have thought about the backlash and negative ramifications that it would do for his career, such as losing out on the rematch against Garcia. It doesn’t take a genius to predict what would happen if Haney sued Ryan. Anyone could figure that out in a second and say, ‘No, that is a dumb idea.’
“You’re just going to be able to do some bummy [stuff] for a longer duration before you get tired. It doesn’t help you become a better fighter. So, for him to be taking Ryan to court. I think that’s some sucka [stuff],” said Russell.
Practically the whole boxing world is ripping Devin Haney a new one over his decision to sue Ryan Garcia over his positive test for Ostarine. The lawsuit has resulted in Haney’s popularity plummeting even lower than it already had after his defeat against Ryan last April, but what’s worse than that is he’s no longer getting the rematch.
Ryan has already ruled that out. So, Haney’s lawsuit will need to bring in the kind of money that he would have gotten in the rematch for it to have been worthwhile.
Even if it brings Haney similar money, his career won’t benefit in the same way it would if he’d fought Ryan in the rematch and beaten him. That would have meant that Haney was back to where he was before his loss last April. But his lawsuit ruined that chance.
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