Shakur Stevenson, WBC lightweight champion, predicts Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis will “annihilate” his inexperienced “C-level” opponent Frank Martin on June 15th in their headliner at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Shakur feels that the late start the 29-year-old Martin (18-0, 12 KOs) got into boxing at 15 and has put him behind fighters like Tank Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) and himself, forcing him to play catchup. Stevenson says Martin can be victorious in this fight only if he scores a knockout, but he sees that as unlikely. Shakur sees Tank annihilating Martin and then making a big deal out of his win, as if he did something special instead of besting a fighter who was never on his level in the first place.
Levels to the Fight
“The way I look at that fight, it’s levels. There are levels to the fight. Tank is going to go in there and figure him out, figure out that he’s really not on his level, and then he’s going to annihilate him and feel like he’s on the top of the world because he annihilated somebody that is C-level,” said Shakur Stevenson to the Sean Zittel YouTube channel, giving his view on the June 15th fight between WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Frank Martin in Las Vegas.
Shakur has changed his view of Martin because he was interested in fighting when in the past, but after he chose not to accept the money offer for the fight, now suddenly he views him as “C-level.”
Martin does have a chance in this fight because Tank is coming off a 14-month layoff, and he’s not faced anyone on the level of him. The Baltimore native Tank’s recent wins have come against fighters well below the level of Martin against these guys:
– Ryan Garcia
– Hector Garcia
– Rolando Romero
– Isaac Cruz
– Mario Barrios
– Leo Santa Cruz
– Yuriorkis Gamboa
“I think he fought better fighters than Frank,” Shakur said about Tank Davis. “Honestly, I see Frank, and I’m not trying to disrespect Frank because I heard him say in an interview that I’m hating on him. I’m really not.”
Shakur isn’t going to praise Martin because he wants a fight against Tank Davis, and it’s not a good idea for him to bad mouth the ‘Face of Boxing.’ With the money Shakur can get fighting Tank, the last thing he needs to do is upset him and make him not want to bless him with that payday.
Davis’s Superior Experience and Skill
“I don’t really got nothing to hate on him, but the levels. He [Frank Martin] started [boxing] at 17-years-old. 15, whatever it is. He clearly started late. He’s like a behind fighter. So, he’s got to catch up to all the years that we’ve been putting in since youngsters like. I don’t think there’s any way he can do it [beat Tank Davis].”
Martin showed in his last fight, with his win over Artem Harutyunyan last year, that he could overcome a fighter with more skills and a superior amateur pedigree. Frank showed that heart, power, and determination were enough for him to overcome a fighter who was outclassing him in the early going.
“I think the only chance he had, which is everybody in the sport of boxing has is a puncher’s chance, but that would depend on luck, and I don’t see that happening,” said Shakur about Martin pulling off an upset against Gervonta on June 15th.
Of course, Martin has a puncher’s chance, but that’s not all. He’s got enough skills to win a decision against Tank by outworking him in the second half of the contest and taking advantage of his inactivity.
Tank has been out of the ring a long time, and his opposition has been marginal his entire eleven-year career. Mayweather Promotions didn’t do Tank Davis any favor by matching him against tomato cans all these years, and now that he’s finally facing someone who can fight, it could bite him in the backside.
