Gary Russell Jr. lampooned Gervonta Davis and Devin Haney in an interview, trashing them for being weak. Former featherweight champion Russell says WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Tank Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) is “bambooing” the public, “picking and choosing” weak opposition instead of the fighters fans want to see him . This is done to ensure that Tank does not get hit.
Tank Davis has held the secondary WBA lightweight belt for years, which protected him from the dangers he would have to face if he held the main title.
Russell doesn’t think too much of Tank’s latest choice of opponent, Lamont Roach, who was dug up from the super featherweight division. He says Tank is trying
“Tank has fought a lot of people who (fans) don’t want to see him fight anyway. I could have seen it coming,” Gary Russell Jr. said Battle hypewhich is responding to Gervonta Davis selecting Lamont Roach out of the super featherweight division rather than selecting a lightweight.
Gervonta fought opposition that fans had no interest in seeing for his 11-year career. The only time he fought someone fans wanted to see was when he fought Ryan Garcia, and it was considered a mismatch. Whatever chance Ryan had to win, Tank’s weight stipulations he got stuck in the contract drained it right out of him.
“I don’t think he can do it for much longer. I believe the fans as well as the media networks like yourself who have the platform and the ability to push,” Russell said when asked how much longer Tank Davis can get away with poor opposition like he has his entire 11-year career.
Tank will probably get away with soft opposition until he retires because he doesn’t bring in huge PPV numbers, and he has a loyal following. They don’t care if he doesn’t fight great opposition because many of them know nothing about the sport.
As far as they are concerned, Lamont Roach is elite. However, fighting the kind of opposition that Tank has faced since turning pro in 2013 will doom him to lower PPV numbers for the rest of his career. He’s never going to be someone who brings in 1 million buys because he doesn’t fight the opposition that people want to see.
“You’re all the ones being cackled. You all want to see the best compete against the best, and the people you feel like they’re the best, they’re not trying to compete against the best,” Russell said. “They’d rather fight with someone you don’t even know. You have never heard of them.”
If Tank’s management cared about matching him against the best, he would be scheduled to fight Edwin De Los Santos on December 14th, not Lamont Roach. He was supposed to fight Vasily Lomachenko in 2017 when he was first called out by him.
“Everybody’s like, ‘Damn, why is he fighting this person?’ No, that (thing) is too difficult for them. Your favorite fighters are pistons out here. This is a fact. A period about it. This is no perception. Tank is picking and choosing. I always say, ‘It’s nothing personal,’ but Tank has to take it personally when I say, I think you’re a (wimp) for fighting someone who isn’t a dog.
“I don’t want to discredit Lamont Roach. I know Lamong Roach. He’s a good guy. I know his father. They are all cool, but there are levels for everything. Don’t think you’re fighting a local and make it look like it’s Baltimore against some local dog.
“He picks and chooses. At some point, when does pride come in, when does ego come in, when does integrity kick in and say, ‘I really want to see if I’m as good as I really think I am? I want to try to do better.’ Where is it in sports today?
“If they are both 100% healthy. I don’t think Lamont has a chance to win this fight. In my personal opinion, I don’t think Lamont is going to win the fight. This will be interesting in the early half of the fight. In the latter half of the fight, Tank is going to start walking him down and start touching him. KO or TKO, one of the two,” Russell Jr. said. said about the outcome of the Tank vs. Roach fight.
“It will be a kind of money grab for Lamont. He’ll get some money, but it’s not the career-defining (stuff). Tank battles Lamont Roach is not a career-defining battle. It’s not a fight where people will think he’s in danger or Lamont is a threat to him.
“I don’t think it’s the man route. It’s a little sucka (stuff),” Russell Jr. said of Devin Haney suing Ryan Garcia. “I think it’s a little sucka (stuff) on behalf of Haney or Bill’s command. I don’t think Devin is doing it alone. I’m pretty sure his father is behind the scenes or in front of the scenes doing it (well).
“But I don’t consider it the man route. We are two competitors. We are two fighters. I personally don’t believe that taking steroids or whatever it was that Ryan supposedly had. It doesn’t help with your actual skills. If you are a bum and you take steroids or you take enhancement drugs. Please believe you’re still going to be a bum,” Russell said.
Gary thinks that Devin’s father, Bill Haney, came up with the idea to start a lawsuit against Ryan. If that was the case, Devin should have thought about the backlash and negative effects it would have on his career, such as losing in the rematch against Garcia. It doesn’t take a genius to predict what would happen if Haney sued Ryan. Anyone can figure it out in a second and say, ‘No, that’s a stupid idea.’
“You’re only going to be able to do a few little (things) for a longer period of time before you get tired. It doesn’t help you become a better fighter. So, for him to take Ryan to court. I think it’s a little sucka (good),” Russell said.
Virtually the entire boxing world is tearing Devin Haney a new one over his decision to sue Ryan Garcia over his positive test for Ostarine. The lawsuit caused Haney’s popularity to drop even lower than it already had after his loss to Ryan last April, but what’s worse than that is that he won’t get the rematch anymore.
Ryan has already ruled it out. So, Haney’s lawsuit would have to bring in the kind of money he would have gotten in the rematch to be worth it.
Even if it brings Haney similar money, his career won’t benefit in the same way if he fights Ryan in the rematch and beats him. That would have meant Haney was back to where he was before his loss last April. But his lawsuit ruined that chance.
