Can Gervonta Davis close the distance and land significantly on the defensively elite Shakur Stevenson? That’s the question that one of the best fights in boxing boils down to.
‘Tank’ Davis has stopped 28 out of 30 opponents. At the other end of the scale, Stevenson has a less than 50% knockout ratio but wins bouts comfortably over the distance.
Both men are undefeated and currently hold world titles in the lightweight division. Together, they are two halves of one of the most difficult to call match-ups in the sport.
Asked by Fight Hub TV to predict how a tournament would turn out with all the best 135 and 140 pounders – Davis, Stevenson, Devin Haney, Subriel Matias, Teofimo Lopez, Ryan Garcia – former trainer to Gennady Golovkin, Abel Sanchez, said Davis beats them all.
“Matias and Gervonta are in the final … Shakur doesn’t have the pop that Davis has. He doesn’t have the pop that Matias has.
I think [Tank is the best of them all.] I think that [Tank] has what I would love to have in all my fighters, he’s got a [Roberto] Duran rage in my opinion. None of these [other] guys have that. Yes, he’s a little short, but when you’ve got that Duran rage, he wants to hurt you … The other guys, they don’t have that rage and I think that’s very important in a fighter.
Unfortunately for fans, the fight is set to marinate longer. Despite both recently coming off title defences in the same period and looking for opponents, talks failed to materialised and Stevenson, now signed with Matchroom, will face former super-featherweight world champion Joe Cordina on October 12.
His team want to get that win before facing William Zepeda and then Davis, who is slated for a November return with an opponent as yet unannounced.
