Gervonta Davis Challenges Devin Haney to a Fight If he can Win Over Kambosos
In his next at bat, Regular WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis (26-0, 24 KO’s) will slide through the ropes to settle an old grudge. In that contest, Davis will test his might against the challenge of Rolando Romero in a fight that most believe that Tank will win handily. Aside from the prizefight itself, the match is significant because it will be the last bout that Davis competes under the Mayweather Promotions banner. Following the Romero dustup, he will officially be a free agent.
As would be expected, boxing insiders and the public feel all kinds of ways about his decision to blaze his own trail. One fighter in particular who weighed in on the subject is WBC lightweight champion Devin “The Dream” Haney (27-0, 15 KO’s). Of all the fighters in the 135-pound weight class, Haney has remained one of the most snake-bitten in the division. The Californian kid was unsuccessful in securing fights with Vasiliy Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez when they were unified champions. He was also unsuccessful in luring any of the other top names, with or without a belt, into the ring.
WELL I’M HERE NOW!
Amid those that The Dream called out, Tank Davis was most certainly among them. In fact, Haney is on record calling Tank out as far back as 2019 . Clearly, nothing panned out as the two have never faced one another in professional combat. Yet, in a recent interview conducted on the Last Stand Podcast with Brian Custer, Davis took issue with a few comments that Haney made in regards to his leaving Mayweather Promotions. He took such an issue in fact, that he outright challenged The Dream to a fight.
“He’s a email champ! He is fighting because someone mailed him the belt! Did that ever happen in boxing before? And he’s talking crazy. So if you [Haney] win, you saying all that, if you win, I’m not on my contract, let’s make the fight happen! Since you want to talk crazy!”
GET IN LINE!
It was disappointing to hear Tank recycling the long dreary “email champion” quip first uttered by the aforementioned Teofimo Lopez. The now infamous term was weaponized into a rather toothless excuse to sidestep a match with Haney. Aside from that triviality however, this is actually very good and a potentially revealing development.
This is because during his tenure with Mayweather Promotions, by far the biggest knock against Tank was his tepid level of competition. For years the fans have wanted to see him pick up the ferocity of opposition without any satisfaction. Yet, if he starts contracting huge fights, like himself versus Devin Haney the millisecond he is no longer with his former promotional outfit, then it will become clear who was holding up production before.
At the same time, even if Haney and Tank do win their next fights, more than likely Tank will not be next anyway. This is because, in The Dream’s next bout, he will travel to Australia to face unified lightweight champion George Kambosos to crown an undisputed champion. In order to make the fight happen however, Haney agreed not only to face Kambosos in his own down under backyard, but even if he wins he must rematch Kambosos in Australia again. Obviously this is no small feat to accomplish, nor a quick one.
Nevertheless, it’s great that Davis threw out the challenge because if both men are successful in their next required assignments, it’d be wonderful to get Tank and Haney pitted against one another for all the marbles late in 2023. First however, let’s see how these dustups with Romero and Kambosos pan out. This all could be a lot jaw jacking for nothing if one of these fighters gets snuffed first!
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By: Bakari Simpson
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