WBA lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis 30-0 (28) says he is open to fighting any of the other titleholders at 135-pound following his eighth-round knockout of Frank ‘The Ghost’ Martin 18-0 (12) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
The 29-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland did what he does best. He had a good look at his opponent early on, then turned the screws as he kept increasing the pressure with each passing round.
The end was as dramatic as it was violent. A cracking left uppercut followed by a thunderous overhand left from the southpaw put fellow lefty Martin, 29, down and out. The official time of the stoppage was 1:29.
“The way he fell. I knew he wasn’t getting back up because he hit his head on the mat,” said Davis. “Overall, he’s a great fighter.”
All three judges had Davis up by one point at the time of the knockout with identical scores of 67-66.
Davis was as accurate as he was deadly, landing a whopping 53% of his power punches according to CompuBox.
“Once again we did it again. On to the next,” Davis said.
“I just had to get him [Martin] in range. I was finding my range. He had a decent jab, he was moving a lot, I just had to break him down as the fight went on.
“He was definitely throwing more punches than I was in the beginning rounds and my whole thing was to let him tire himself out.
“I don’t think he was connecting with a lot of those shots, but he was definitely touching my gloves and stuff like that. I knew he was going to tire himself out. That was the game plan.
“He had decent power but he was wearing down as the fight was going on. That’s how I knew he was breaking down. That’s when I started picking it up more and my coach was telling me to pick it up more.”
World title unification bouts for Davis beckon, with Ukrainian southpaw Vasiliy Lomachenko 18-3 (12) holding the IBF title and Newark portsider Shakur Stevenson 21-0 (10) the WBC champ.
“All of them,” Davis replied when asked who he wants to face next. “I’m willing to fight all of them. Simple as that.
“[Victory’s] cool, but the job’s not done. So it’s on to the next. It was a good build up, Frank is a great fighter. He put up a good four to five rounds.
“I can’t celebrate too much because I’ve got to do it again.”
The fight was featured bout on what was the 100th boxing card held at the MGM Grand.
“It’s big. I’m grateful to be part of this moment,” Davis said. “Things start to come together. Just being part of this whole thing, fighting in Vegas, fighting at the MGM and fighting in the same building as a lot of legends.”
