Gervonta Davis says that undisputed super lightweight champion Josh Taylor is all cap!
Within the lightweight division, there is a bevy of great prizefights to be made among the many fighters housed there. Unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez could settle the matter of undisputed with WBC 135-pound champion Devin Haney. Lopez could rematch Vasiliy Lomachenko and Ryan Garcia still has most of the top names to pick from. And last random example, regular WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis (25-0, 24 KO’s) could challenge either Haney or Lopez to get his hands on a belt that is actually respected and acknowledged.
Oddly enough, Davis is becoming somewhat preoccupied with undisputed super lightweight champion Josh “The Tartan Tornado” Taylor (18-0, 13 KO’s). This is something that Teofimo Lopez is currently guilty of as well. It took Taylor almost two years to the day to collect the 140-pound titles from Ivan Baranchyk (IBF), Regis Prograis (WBA super) and Jose Carlos Ramirez (WBO and WBC). Once done, the Tartan Tornado naturally became the target of many fighters. Of those who want to dance with Taylor, Teofimo Lopez and Tank Davis have voiced their interest.
I DIDN’T SAY NOTHING THOUGH!
Ironically enough, both Lopez and Davis have largely nothing but negative commentary regarding Taylor and his accomplishments. This is ironic because the biggest knock against both, Lopez and Davis, is they are all but refusing to face their more dangerous available opponents. In fact, Taylor flat out said he would never consider a dustup with Lopez until he handles his unfinished business with Devin Haney.
In similar fashion to Lopez, Tank has targeted a bout with the Tartan Tornado but has received the same brush off behavior. Unsurprisingly, the Baltimore native did not take kindly to this snubbing. One would think that, if given the chance to confront Taylor, Davis would leap at the opening. This was not the case. As heard from his own mouth, when afforded the window of opportunity to elicit a response, Davis squandered it.
At the recent Crawford versus Porter prizefight, Tank could have gone face to face with Taylor but elected not to. Yet, in a bit of rather confused logic, Tank tried to explain to Fight Hub TV how Taylor was not real and all cap for talking about him on the internet. At the same time however, he then bizarrely admits that he remained mouse quiet instead of getting to the bottom of the situation.
“I seen a lot of people at 140, or the main guy, I seen him at the fight the other day. I should have just walked up to him but I ain’t really want to do that and mess up the fights and stuff like that! He is all talk, all cap on the internet…I really didn’t watch Josh Taylor like that, I hate to even be saying other fighter’s names. I really don’t like it because that’s something that I don’t do. They call my name out, I don’t call they name out.”
TALK IS CHEAP
This is troublesome for many reasons. To begin, why would Davis not call out other names especially when he knows there is growing public discord with his resume? Also, Davis is one of today’s modern fighters that seemingly fail to understand that one fighter is only as good as their dance partner. No one wants to see a great fighter always facing easily digestible opposition.
Furthermore, Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney have called his name out all to no avail. So if he is not going to call out names, respond to his name being called or confront other fighters face-to-face, what can we really hope to expect from Tank?
There is little to no doubt that Davis felt and thought himself to be tough when he retold his tale about Josh Taylor. In all actuality however, he really made himself look bad and put that much more pressure on his own back to tangle with a legitimately difficult opponent. Time will tell what he does next following his December 5 bout with Isaac Cruz. Yet, by the way he is talking and his team has moved him, don’t get overly excited about his next announcement!
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By: Bakari Simpson
