His Excellency Turki Alalshikh wants to put together a mega-fight between Naoya Inoue and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis if he can find a weight that both fighters would agree to.
I think it’s going to take a lot of convincing on the part of Alalshikh to get ‘Monster’ Inoue to agree to this fight with Tank Davis.
Inoue is a big star in Japan, making tons of money fighting obscure opposition, and it would be a huge career risk for him to fight someone who can actually knock him out. Up to now, the only decent name on Inoue’s resume is 40-year-old Nonito Donaire. Geronta’s Not Sinking to Bantamweight Tank Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) can’t drop to 126 or 122 for a fight against the Japanese star without depleting himself completely and having nothing left to fight. Gervonta isn’t going to shrink himself to the point of passing out just to get Inoue to agree to the fight.
His Excellent is going to have to do some convincing for Inoue because he might not be willing to take the huge risk involved with fighting Tank Davis at 130. Inoue has been feasting on the lesser opposition in the lower weight classes, and if he agreed to fight Tank Davis, he would suddenly be thrown in with a real killer for the first time in his career. Inoue has got a cushy gig at 122, beating fighters with ease in that weight class. Inoue is more than big enough to fight Tank at 135, but he would risk his popularity fighting the talented Tank because he’d finally be facing someone with the power and ability to beat him.
Some believe Inoue walks around in the mid-140s, which means he’s more than big enough to compete against Tank Davis. Inoue’s Comfortable Perch at 122 The 31-year-old four-division world champion Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs) currently fights at 122 at super bantamweight and would need to move up to at least 130, if not 132, to make a fight against lightweight champion Tank Davis feasible.
Some boxing fans believe that’s the reason Inoue is so reluctant to move up to featherweight becaue he’d be risking his hide going up to that weight class where there are numerous fighters that could give him nightmares.