‘I would destroy Gervonta Davis’


By Dan Ambrose: Undisputed 140lb champion Josh Taylor says he would “destroy” newly crowned secondary WBA light welterweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis if he agreed to fight him. Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) believes it would be easy to beat the young upstart if he chose to fight him.

With Tank’s problems in his last fight against Mario Barrios, Taylor would likely be a step too far.

Gervonta’s promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr was so worried about him losing to Barrios that he went up to the corner after the seventh round on June 26th and gave him a motivational speech to let him know how dire the situation was.

Thus far, Gervonta’s promoters at Mayweather Promotions haven’t expressed any interest in letting him tangle with IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Taylor.

In fact, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe told the boxing media recently that Taylor isn’t well known enough in the U.S for them to have any interest in letting Gervonta fight him.

Although Ellerbe acknowledges that Taylor has the hardware that makes him a desirable opponent, he’s more concerned with the bottom line in terms of him not being a household name.

With that said, Gervonta’s last opponent, secondary WBA 140lb champion Mario Barrios wasn’t known by boxing fans or fighters. They don’t know who this guy was, yet Mayweather Promotions matched Tank Davis against him in his last fight.

Taylor says he’d “destroy Gervonta Davis

“I never watched the full fight, I saw highlights of it, but the rights that I seen, he was getting outboxed the majority of the fight,” said Josh Taylor to Boxing Social on Gervonta Davis.

“He is a very good fighter, very skillful, but he was getting outboxed by Mario [Barrios].

“He was getting outboxed, and it happened to be that body shot, and that happened to be the start of the end.

“Listen, I would absolutely destroy him [Gervonta Davis]. It’s a good fight, it’s a big fight, but I would absolutely take him to bits. I would absolutely smash him to pieces,” said Josh.

“I’m not calling him [Gervonta] out. I just think he’s a little p****. He’s not even on my radar; I’m not even thinking about him.

“But he can’t be calling himself a champion at 140 because there’s only one champion, and that’s myself.

“That’s what I hate about boxing. There are too many belts—interim belts, and diamond belts, and regular and super.

“There are too many belts. There’s only one champion at 140, and that’s me.

“They can call themselves whatever they want, but it’s fiction, it’s fantasy. They’re not a champion at 140. There’s only one, and that’s me,” said Taylor.

Gervonta would be over his head against Josh Taylor, and he and his promoters at Mayweather Promotions likely know that.

If Gervonta wanted to fight Taylor, he would have mentioned it before and after his fight against the little known secondary WBA light welterweight champion Mario Barrios on June 26th

Josh reacts to Leonard Ellerbe’s comments

“He said that there were only 1,000 people in the arena, but let’s not forget, that was the restrictions in Vegas at the time, and that’s all that was allowed,” said Josh Taylor in reacting to Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe’s criticism of his fight with Jose Ramirez only drawing 1,000 fans on May 22nd in Vegas.

“Don’t forget, I would have taken thousands of fans over to Vegas if it was open.

“I would have taken thousands of fans over, and that arena at the MGM Grand would have been filled. So he’s [Ellerbe] talking s*** that I’m not a big draw. I am a big draw,” said Josh Taylor.

Gervonta’s promoter Leonard Ellerbe mentioned the small 1000-member crowd for the Taylor vs. Jose Ramirez fight on May 22nd to justify not wanting to match his fighter against Josh.

It would be interesting to know if Ellerbe was aware of the restrictions on the crowds for the Taylor-Ramirez fight in Las Vegas.

If so, then it means Ellerbe was disingenuous when he used the small crowd for Taylor’s last fight as an excuse not to let Tank Davis fight him.

It already didn’t look good that Mayweather Promotions chose to match Tank Davis against WBA secondary 140-lb champion Mario Barrios rather than the four-belt undisputed champion Taylor.

That looked like a cherry-picking move on Mayweather Promotions part to match Tank against a weak champion. Moreover, Barrios was an unknown fighter in the eyes of casual and hardcore boxing fans.

Barrios was little more than an obscure paper champion, and he definitely wasn’t better known to U.S boxing fans than Josh Taylor.

If Mayweather Promotions are hesitant to match Gervonta against any of the quality fighters at 140, they should have him vacate his secondary WBA title and move back down.

As long as Gervonta stays at 140, he’s going to have pressure put on him by fans to fight talented fighters like Taylor, Regis Prograis, and Jose Ramirez.

Ellerbe and Mayweather Promotions can’t dig up another obscure fighter for Tank to pad his record against and expect fans to take him seriously.

Crawford on Josh Taylor’s radar

“I’ve love the Terence Crawford fight,” said Taylor when asked what fight he wants most of all.

It’s a massive, massive fight. He’s the last one to do it [unify the 140-lb division], and now I’m done it.

“He’s deemed as the boogeyman [at 147], and no one wants to fight him, but I want to fight him. I think that would be a brilliant fight, and I think I can beat him.

“I think he’s a brilliant fighter; he can do it all. He can fight, he can box, he can move on the back foot, the front foot, southpaw, orthodox.

“And he can do it all, and he’s a special fighter. But I’m a special fighter as well. I believe in my own ability, and I think I can win that fight.

“I just think that’s a massive, massive fight for the boxing fans. It’s been mentioned [by Top Rank]. It’s not a million miles away.

“And it’s a pretty straightforward fight to make. He’s with Top Rank as well, so it’s in-house.

“You don’t have all this boxing politics. The only thing that needs to be discussed is how much we’re going to get paid and where are we going to fight.

“If that’s all that’s going to be sorted out, then it’s an easy fight to be made. Plus, I think it’s a brilliant fight for the boxing fans.

“That’s what boxing needs, the best fighters fighting the best. Not avoiding each other. I think that’s a great fight to be had,” Taylor said.

Crawford vs. Taylor will be an excellent fight when/if it eventually happens, but it probably won’t go down until mid to late 2022.

If Taylor stays at 140 long enough to battle Teofimo Lopez and Gervonta Davis, we might not see the Taylor-Crawford fight until 2023. Even then, it would depend on both Crawford and Taylor still winning.

Josh isn’t going to be fighting Crawford right away because he will be staying at 140 to defend against his WBO mandatory Jack Catterall next.

For his part, Crawford is expected to defend against 140-pounder Jose Zepeda next.

Taylor is not scared of Teofimo Lopez

“Of course, I’ll fight anybody,” said Josh Taylor when asked if he’d fight Teofimo Lopez when he moves up to 140. “If it makes sense, let’s make it happen.

“I’m not going to rule out any fight. I’m not scared of anybody. But he [Teofimo] has unfinished business at 135 to do. He’s got to clean up his division.

“He’s no undisputed champion. He keeps saying he is. He isn’t. So he needs to do that first if he wants to call himself the undisputed champion at 135.

“He needs to get the Loma rematch; he needs to fight Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia to say that he’s the best. And he is a very good fighter.

“He’s got two or three belts, but he’s not an undisputed champion. He’s got unfinished business at 135, but if he came up and wanted that fight, let’s do it.

“I can beat them all; I’m not afraid of any one of them. I can beat them all. Why would I be scared of Teofimo Lopez?

“His dad is a bit of a tosser, isn’t he? He makes it more about him than he does Teofimo.

“He’s not the world’s greatest trainer because Teofimo beat Lomachenko.

“He’s a f*** idiot, but why would I be scared to fight Teofimo Lopez? That’s just farcical, isn’t it?” said Josh Taylor.

If Taylor vacates his four titles and then moves up to 147 to take on Crawford, it doesn’t look promising that he can fight Teofimo.

Taylor should wait at 14o to face Teofimo first before going up to 147 to challenge Crawford. However, if Teofimo loses his rematch with Vasily Lomachenko, Taylor should forget about Teo and go up to 147 to fight Crawford.

What could mess up the Crawford fight for Taylor is Terence losing to the winner of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Errol Spence Jr. fight. Crawford has a good chance of fighting the winner of that match, and he might not have enough to beat either guy.

Under that scenario, it would be useless for Taylor to fight Crawford if he gets beaten by Spence or Manny.


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