Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis 24-0 (23) deliver one of the knockouts of the year when he stopped Leo ‘El Terremoto’ Santa Cruz 37-2-1 (19) in six frames with a vicious left uppercut at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday night.
The 25-year-old southpaw from Baltimore, Maryland proved why he was worthy of pay-per-view billing with his one-punch KO that left former four-weight world champion Santa Cruz out cold on the canvas for some time.
Mexican Santa Cruz, 32, started well, using his volume punching and swarming style to trouble the younger fighter, but Davis came into his own as the rounds wore on.
In the sixth Davis was warned for a low blow but this only seemed to fire him up. He stormed across the ring and, despite being a natural lefty, squared up and caught Santa Cruz with a left uppercut from the orthodox stance.
It was lights out.
The official time of the stoppage was 2:40. At the time Davis was leading 48-47 across the board.
“The uppercut wasn’t the key coming into the fight, but I adapted to what he was bringing,” Davis said.
“I knew he was taller and crouching down and moving forward. Once he moved forward, I tried to jab and make him run into the shot.
“In the first couple of rounds I wasn’t really warmed up. I could tell that he was trying to counter off of me, so I just adapted to what he was doing.
“He was right there for it. He punches, but he doesn’t try to get out of the way. There was nowhere for him to go on that knockout because I got him into the corner.”
It was an impressive performance by Davis, who staked his WBA ‘regular’ lightweight title against Santa Cruz’s WBA super featherweight belt in the 130-pound clash.
“Leo is a tough warrior and a strong Mexican fighter,” Davis said. “He came ready for me. I was just the better fighter tonight.”
It is unknown where Davis intends to campaign in the future. A matchup with newly crowned unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez 16-0 (12) would be one of the best fights that could be made in boxing right now.
“I want to maintain both belts,” he said. “Whatever decision me and my team comes up with, we’ll go with it. I’m not ducking or dodging anybody.”
The fight marked Davis’s pay-per-view debut and the Floyd Mayweather prodigy believes he deserves nothing but big fights from here on out.
“I’m a pay-per-view star. Everybody knows I’m number one and I showed it tonight,” Davis said.
“I’m going to continue to show people all over the world that I’m the best. I don’t have to call anybody else out.
“I’m the top dog. Just line them up and I’ll knock them out.”
According to CompuBox, Davis landed 55% of his power punches (80 of 146) compared to 76 of 259 (29%) for Santa Cruz, who was having his best round in the sixth (27 of 98) before the end came.
 deliver one of the knockouts of the year when he stopped Leo ‘El Terremoto’ Santa Cruz 37-2-1 (19) in six frames with a vicious left uppercut at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday night.){kind=link}