WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr 31-1 (18) says Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis 25-0 (24) has avoided him throughout his career.
The 33-year-old southpaw from Capitol Heights, Maryland, a career featherweight, was only one division removed from Baltimore’s Davis, 26, who has boxed most of his career in the super featherweight division.
Davis dethroned WBA 130-pound champion Leo Santa Cruz 37-2-1 (19) by stunning sixth-round knockout in San Antonio, Texas last October.
He backed up this performance with an 11th round knockout of WBA ‘regular’ titleholder Mario Barrios 26-1 (17) in Atlanta, Georgia in June.
Southpaw Davis is expected to split the difference and campaign at lightweight going forward but Russell still sees him as a viable opponent.
“I definitely wanted Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis. I still want him,” Russell Jr said to FightHub. “I wanted to break my foot off into Leo [Santa Cruz]. Leo ran away from me for the longest.
“He was in my weight division. We could have made it happen. Everybody that was in 126 when they was fighting whoever.
“Whether it was Shakur Stevenson, whether it was Josh Warrington and whether it was whoever they were at the time when they had the opportunity to compete against me, none of those guys was in a rush to get in the ring with me.”
Russell, who has boxed just once a year since 2015, believes Davis cherry-picked Barrios for his most recent bout.
“I thought it was a very strategic fight,” Russell Jr said. “It was strategized and it almost fucking backfired. It was a real strategy fight, and it almost backfired.
“They’re cherry-picking. What I mean by that is they picking the easiest task or whoever they feel is the easiest task or the easiest fight is and fighting that person. And with Barrios, he was fucking losing.
“Floyd [Mayweather Jr] had to come in his corner and tell him, ‘You’re down on the scorecards. You got to get this guy out of here to win this fight.’
“Even when [Davis] was competing against Leo, he was losing that fight. He was down on the scorecards in all of them rounds until he hit Leo.”
Davis was in fact leading the fight 96-92, 97-91 and 96-92 although a reasonable case could be made that Barrios was ahead at the time of the stoppage.
“I think it was strategic. I know for a fact he’s not going to stay his ass up there at 140,” Russell Jr continued.
“He ain’t going to stay at 140. Not with that performance. He’s still got a title at 130 or something like that. The Super WBA or something like that.
“He needs to come back down here and holler at us for a little bit. [Mayweather Promotions] are trying to trick and bamboozle the fans and the people.
“Don’t try and tell me it’s this when I know it’s that. Barrios, I don’t want to disrespect him. He’s definitely a fighter. Shit, I can’t really say that because he was beating Tank. He was honestly beating Tank.”
