Floyd Mayweather has ruled out Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis 25-0 (24) facing many of the top names from 130- to 140-pounds with a stunning admission on the weekend.
Mayweather, who promotes Davis and acts as a mentor to the 26-year-old from Baltimore, was ringside for the rising star’s 11th round knockout of WBA ‘regular’ junior welterweight titleholder Mario ‘El Azteca’ Barrios 26-1 (17) in Atlanta on Saturday night.
Davis was previously in action against WBA super featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz 37-1-1 (19) who he stopped in six rounds in San Antonio in October. Now with the win over Barrios, there would seem to be abundant opportunities across three separate weight classes. Names like Josh Taylor, Teofimo Lopez, Vasiliy Lomachenko and Oscar Valdez spring to mind.
You can put a line through them all, says Mayweather.
“His team are gonna take care of that,” Mayweather said when asked who Davis’ next opponent would be.
“Our thing is this, we work smarter, not harder. So we keep everything in-house.
“Mayweather Promotions, PBC, we’re all one family.
“We’re not gonna go away and make another company great.
“We’ve got plenty at 140lbs, 135lbs, 130lbs. We’re gonna continue to fight the fighters that we’ve got to fight.”
PBC has a thin roster at super featherweight and lightweight. At junior welterweight they have worked with Regis Prograis in the past, while Mikey Garcia could possibly be tempted to come back down from welterweight.
Mayweather’s comments come after Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe dismissed the idea of a fight against WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO 140-pound champion Taylor 18-0 (13) out of hand.
“Yesterday, it was ‘Josh Taylor is the undisputed champion’ or something along those lines,” Ellerbe said to the media on Friday ahead of the Barrios-Davis fight.
“But when it comes to attractions in the United States, he means nothing other than to the diehard fans. That’s no knock on Taylor.
“I’m sure he’s big in Scotland and has sold out venues over there, but it’s a different world in the United States. We’re going to have 14,000 to 15,000 here on Saturday night.
“I assure you if there are even 100 people that know who he is, I’ll be surprised.
“Out of those 100 people, half of them will be the Showtime people, the camera people, the production people, and then a view of the fans in the venue.
“No one even knows who he is in the United States. He’s a tremendous fighter, but when it comes to the U.S and being an attraction, it’s different.
“That’s why the biggest British fighters have found a way to come over here and build their name so they can become global attractions, and it’s a big difference.”
Ellerbe ruled out Davis campaigning at 140-pounds on a permanent basis.
“Tank is taking a risk jumping up two weight classes and fighting a very dangerous guy,” he continued.
“It was a wonderful opportunity for him [Gervonta] to move up two weight classes and fight a very dangerous guy, Mario Barrios.
“Again, he would be commended for doing that, not talking about why he’s not fighting Josh Taylor.
“The kid just fought at 130 lbs in his last fight against Leo Santa Cruz. He will not be campaigning at 140.
“No, he’s not campaigning at 140. It’s an opportunity if a big fight comes about and it makes sense; we’re going to go for it.
“Tank is a 30, 35-pounder, and we’re going to fight everybody we can. We can’t fight everybody tomorrow.
“We got to fight everybody one by one and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Ellerbe added that Davis is already a crossover star and that his fanbase neither knows nor cares who the world champions are.
“Out of the 14,000, 15,000 people we’re going to have here tomorrow night, most of them couldn’t even tell you what kind of champion Tank is, what kind of champion he has been, and for that matter, who is Mario Barrios,” said Ellerbe.
“They don’t know and they don’t care. All that matters is this guy [Tank Davis] has been the face of our culture, and the younger generation has gravitated towards him because he gives them exactly what they want to see.
“That’s on a consistent basis and they don’t mind paying their money to see him.”
