BOXING
Gervonta Davis’ coach rules out Shakur Stevenson super bout for now
‘Tank’ and Shakur are regarded as two of the biggest talents in the lower divisions, but it seems that both stars won’t meet in the ring, not anytime soon.
Bad news for boxing fans. Although they had been toying with the idea of seeing Gervonta Davis take on Shakur Stevenson inside the ring, it seems that won’t happen, at least in the near future.
Davis’ coach Calvin Ford has rejected the possibility of a mega-fight with Shakur Stevenson, saying that Tank wouldn’t be paid enough.
Ford is not interested in seeing his fighter face the likes of Stevenson, Vasiliy Lomachenko, or Frank Martin, but he would welcome a rematch clash with Isaac Cruz.
From a career standpoint, fighting the Mexican would be a safer bet, as Davis has already defeated Pitbull, although it has been one of Tank’s hardest fights to date. Gervonta earned a hard-fought unanimous decision to defeat Cruz when many expected a routine knockout win.
Avoiding Stevenson: a money issue or a defeat fear?
It seems obvious that although Ford speaks about Stevenson not putting in the big money numbers for him to face Davis, there might be a ‘fear factor’ of a first-ever defeat for the Baltimore-bred star.
Stevenson is considered by many as the future of boxing, as he’s one of the most complete boxers, all divisions included.
“If you look at the numbers they’re putting out, it doesn’t make sense,” said Ford to Fighthype.
“Once they understand the business, you can’t go in there asking for a whole bunch of money. Shakur got offered some money from Devin Haney. Do you see the way he turned it down? Tank isn’t taking a pay cut”, he added.
“I wouldn’t say it’s his biggest fight [Shakur]. His biggest fight is every fight. Y’all see that. It’s just another fight we got to look at”, Ford continued.
However, he also said that although it may be too soon for Stevenson to face Davis, a fight between them seems inevitable and a matter of time:
“It’s going to happen one day. We just got to be prepared for it when it happens”.
While Cruz is Davis’ likeliest opponent, Stevenson has shown lots of interest in fighting the current undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney and the two-time Olympic gold medalist and former three-weight class world champion shortly.