Gervonta “Tank” Davis is back, and it’s like he has never left.
The WBA 135-pound champion defeated previously unbeaten Frank “The Ghost” Martin by knockout in the eighth round on Saturday night, which marked the 100th championship fight night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas(PBC/Prime Video PPV).
A crowd of 13,249 saw an action-packed fight.
Earlier in the bout, Frank Martin was having a lot of success. He outlanded or landed the same amount of punches as Davis in the first six rounds of the fight. In addition, he caused some swelling by Davis’ right eye. However, Davis was slowly putting on the pressure.
Davis(30-0, 28 KOs), who fought for the first time in 14 months, started to break Martin down in Rounds 7 and 8, and he finally put him away with an uppercut and vicious left hand and the fight was over at 1:29 of Round 8 as Martin struggled to get to his feet.
“I knew he wasn’t getting back up because of the way he fell, and I knew he was gonna tire himself out; that was the whole gameplan,” Davis said.
Martin(18-1, 12 KOs), who fought well on Saturday night, says he’ll be better going forward.
“I’m holding my head high,” said Martin. “At the end of the day, I came out to be great, but I came up short. I got caught with a shot that I didn’t see, one of those shots that comes from underneath and it went from there.
“I’ll be back. Going to go watch the film, get better and grow. Y’all will see me again.”
Davis is one of the faces of boxing, and he moves the needle, so where does he go from here? There has been talk of him facing IBF 135-pound champion Vasiliy Lomachenko next in a unification bout. Also, WBC 135-pound champion Shakur Stevenson has been mentioned. Davis may wait to see what happens with WBA 140-pound champion Isaac Cruz, who battles Jose Valenzuela on August 3. If Cruz wins, maybe Davis will fight him in a rematch of their fight in 2021, which Davis won by unanimous decision.
Clearly, he has options, but my preference is Stevenson.
No matter who he fights, Davis is box office and fans want to see him, and based on his win over Martin, you can see why.
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