With the final days of 2019 ticking away, boxing fans will be treated to yet another intriguing fight, as former 130-pound titleholder Gervonta “Tank” Davis (22-0, 21 KOs) will be moving up in weight to take on Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-2, 18 KOs) for the vacant WBA regular Lightweight title.
The fight will take place at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia and be broadcast live on Showtime.
At 25 years of age, Davis, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, is a bright young star in the sport of boxing and for good reason, as his personality outside of the ring combined with his electrifying fighting style make him appealing to fans.
Stylistically, Tank, who fights out of the southpaw stance, is an extremely aggressive, explosive and powerful fighter, as evidenced by the fact that 21 of his 22 victories have come by way of stoppage. In fact, 16 of his victories have come in three rounds or less.
Having previously held a pair of Super Featherweight titles, Davis is coming off of a second-round thrashing of Ricardo Núñez this past July.
Despite his undeniable success thus far, some have argued that Davis hasn’t faced the toughest of competition and it’s quite likely that Gamboa represents his stiffest test to date.
The 38-year-old Cuban, who won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics and is a former unified world champion, is the more experienced fighter in this case, as he holds a 30-2 professional record with 18 of those victories coming by way of T/KO.
After suffering the second loss of his professional career to Robinson Castellanos in 2017, Gamboa has put together a solid winning streak, as he’s won four straight over the likes of Alexis Reyes, Jason Sosa, Miguel Beltran Jr. and most recently, Roman Martinez.
Gamboa’s only other professional loss came at the hands of pound-for-pound great Terence Crawford in 2014.
So while it’s true that the Cuban is the more experienced fighter between him and Davis in terms of the number of fights each has had as well as the level of competition each has faced, it’s also been quite some time since he’s scored a victory over what would be a deemed a truly high-level fighter.
Regardless of the fact that he’s clearly passed his athletic prime, Gamboa still represents a skilled fighter, as both his speed and power have remained with him, though he probably falls short in both of those categories when compared to Davis.
As far as size goes, both Davis and Gamboa are essentially the same height, though Davis will hold a two-and-half inch reach advantage on fight night.
As has been much discussed in the lead-up to this fight, Gamboa is likely Davis’ most well-known and toughest test to date.
But, it’s also true that Gamboa isn’t the same fighter he once was. The Cuban’s boxing skill and experience could potentially give Davis some problems early on, but I just don’t see that being the case.
Tank is simply too fast and too powerful and once he finds his openings, I expect him to finish this fight sooner rather than later, finding a stoppage in the early-to-middle rounds.
