gervonta davis ducking lomachenko ?

Liam Walsh -- Davis' first title defence -- wasn't exactly a taxing opponent for him.

I think Floyd will go down the route of getting Davis mandatory and voluntary defences for his next 2 to 4 fights, keeping him active, and then go after a unification with Berchelt, or even Corrales if Mayweather is willing to do business with Golden Boy.

 

In this case it's actually Gervonta making the noises as to why he won't fight Loma, "not a big enough draw", "won't make my career", and other asinine excuses.

In fact he should just say he's young and not ready for Loma yet, that's perfectly understandable given his age and I wouldn't blame him at all.

He seems to be on a mission to collect haters, he said on Twitter recently that he couldn't care less about his legacy.

 

It's just that the reasons he gives are so feeble.

Just say the fight is better next year and 95% of boxing fans would be fine with that.

 

Davis is a titlist though. If a fighter is seen as too young or inexperienced to unify, they have no business holding a belt. Got tired of this excuse for Wilder already.

 

Berchelt boxes his ears off and possibly stops him imo. He'd have a better chance of unifying against Corrales although that's certainly not a gimme either, given that Davis' style at least right now is basically speed. Corrlaes looks to be skilled enough, to neutralize that.

 

Eh, the "not ready" excuse wouldn't appease most fans because he has a trinket and Lomachenko wants to unify trinkets and what Lomachenko wants is the sacred law (though he is completely correct on the not a draw part, despite the fact that he's paid like one). Oh I see Lance has already illustrated this point above.

I don't really care about what Davis says because the fight wouldn't be happening anyway, just like I didn't get up in arms about Broner or Danny Garcia "pricing themselves out" of Pacquiao fights they'd never be offered anyway.

 

I'm sure most fans would prefer "not ready" to what he's currently saying. I personally wouldn't have an issue with that at all.

And although Lomachenko is not a huge draw, he's still far bigger than any of the other champs at 130 lb.

Gervonta says Loma is not a draw -> then fights Fonseca -> of course he gets criticized.

 

Not ready would be an admission of a duck to most fans and would lead to calls for him to vacate the belt pronto. I simply think getting mad about him makes about as much sense as getting mad at the individual fighters during the Top Rank/Schaefer-era Golden Boy Cold War. Anything he says is completely meaningless because Floyd and Bob are simply not working together.

And are we really bashing Davis for not fighting Lomachnko on the Mayweather-McGregor undercard? It's a showcase fight, nothing more and nothing less.

And yes, Lomachenko is probably a bigger draw than the beltholders at 130 but he's not appreciably bigger than Berchelt or even Salido. Heck Berchelt's last fight, an HBO Boxing After Dark card that wasn't promoted much at all, did comparable ratings to Lomachenko's showcase on ESPN, which has far more potential viewers. This doesn't even get into the fact that Lomachenko has been demanding extremely lopsided purse splits, often in the realm of 65-35 if not more, so his supposed drawing power appears to not be of much benefit to his opponents.

 

didn't mares and santacruz publicly duck rigo?

 

I think you just brought up a point worth making, too. The other titlists at 130 aren't weak, gimme fights. They're tough, and Tank deserves credit for taking them on if those fights come through. Win or lose, he'd come out a better fighter for taking them.

Unfortunately, these Loma comments are going to take the focus off of those great fights and right back on to the one fight he doesn't want to make right now. It's a shame the dude shot himself in the foot in that regard, because one simple statement would've bought him the time he needs.

All that had to be said is "When I fight Loma, I want all (or more of) the belts on the line". That's it. Unification fights take time to set up. Nobody would've begrudged him whatsoever for going after Corrales and/or Berchelt first. That scenario probably would've pushed a Loma fight back to the second half of 2018 at the earliest and gotten fans excited about the buildup. Tank gets the time & development he needs. Fight gets bigger. Tank is seen as a more valid opponent for Loma. Win/win/win.

Instead, he's killing his own hype and a great storyline. Hell, even if he wants to wait 5 years for it (or never wants the fight at all), you still dangle that carrot in front of people to keep interest in your other fights. Arum and Floyd were masters at that.

 

Tank ducking ? how can he duck when Lomo gonna fight Rigo in Dec and Tanks fighting in Aug. ?

 

So much this. Just admit you're not ready yet. No shame in it.

 

Just to be clear. I'm not "bashing Davis for not fighting Lomachenko on the Mayweather-McGregor undercard". I understand the promoter politics, I understand that Davis is still young. I'm not mad at the fight not happening.

My only criticism of Davis is the silly things he says on Twitter attempting to "justify" his lack of desire to face Loma.

 

Not easy, just not Loma yet. I fell like this fight is better if Davis develops just a tad more. I'm not talking years, just another fight and then Loma.

 

Davis is a very unlikable character