Gervonta Davis has faced some backlash for his matchmaking.
Following an impressive first WBA Lightweight World Title defence over previously-undefeated southpaw Frank Martin, ‘Tank’ looked set for a unification with Vasiliy Lomachenko before the Ukrainian pulled out of talks.
Nothing materialised with Shakur Stevenson either and Davis has now announced that he will be welcoming WBA Super-Featherweight Champion and former amateur rival Lamont Roach Jr to 135 for his next bout.
Speaking on ESPN’s State of Boxing, Hall of Fame fighter Tim Bradley said that ‘Tank’s team were protecting him from top competition.
“This is the Tank protection programme. This has being going on for a long time people. They been bringing fighters up from lower weight classes to get in there with Tank, Tank looks spectacular, but it’s a cover-up. I’m gonna tell you right now, I think Tank is a good fighter. I don’t know how great he is, but from the looks of it and the matches he’s been having, the dude looks like a total fraud.”
Bradley then said Edwin De Los Santos, who recently lost to Shakur Stevenson for the vacant WBC Lightweight World Title, should have been in the opposite corner.
“Put him in the ring with somebody that can punch back. Somebody with a great IQ, just as well as he has. They’re saying they don’t have an opponent for him? Yes you do. You do have an opponent in your stable. His name is De Los Santos. We wouldn’t mind, the fans wouldn’t mind, paying for a De Los Santos fight.
They’re covering something I don’t know what it is. Is it the power of De Los Santos they’re worried about? The fact that he’s a southpaw? Because Tank was doing a whole lotta talking when Shakur put everybody to sleep with De Los Santos, but he won’t step his behind in the ring and face a De Los Santos. That’s the fight everybody wants to see.”
As for the business of the Roach fight, Bradley believes it will be a box office flop.
No one’s gonna pay for the pay-per-view, I’m gonna tell you that right now. People are gonna show up cause it’s Tank Davis, but the numbers you’re chasing it’s just gonna be a wishing well, man.
Davis-Roach Jr takes place on December 14 at the Toyota Center, Houston live on Amazon Prime Video.
