Arum: ‘Lomachenko ready for Gervonta Davis’

By Sean Jones

Boxingnews24.com

Vasiliy Lomachenko is ready to move down to 130 to challenge WBA Super World super featherweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis, according to his promoter Bob Arum. He says Lomachenko (12-1, 9 KOs) will take the fight with the unbeaten 24-year-old David (21-0, 20 KOs) as soon as Davis’ promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr. gives the green light.

Arum says Mayweather has already told him that Davis isn’t ready to take on Lomachenko, as he still needs experience before he takes that fight. Although both Davis and Lomachenko started their pro careers out at the same time in 2013, Loma had the benefit of a long amateur career of 397 fights in Ukraine. That’s like another 10 years of experience that Lomachenko has over Davis. That doesn’t necessarily mean Lomachenko would beat Davis though, because he still could lose to the quicker, stronger and younger fighter. Davis a much bigger puncher than Lomachenko, and he’s got a big advantage in youth. Lomachenko is starting to show signs of age on his 31-year-old body. It’s unknown whether the injuries are from aging or the negative side effects of a long amateur career.

“One guy I have the biggest respect for is Floyd Mayweather, and he’s told us he doesn’t believe Davis is ready to fight Lomachenko,” Arum said. “He said that. Now if he changes his mind, why not? We sit down with him. We really would. But again, Floyd is a very astute boxing guy. I happen to agree with him, that Gervonta Davis is a very good fighter, but doesn’t have the experience to face a master like Lomachenko. Now if Floyd changes his mind and says, ‘Go ahead and do the fight,’ Lomachenko said he’d go down to 130 pounds, which is probably the best weight for Davis. So we’re all in for that fight,” Arum said.

This would be a good time for Mayweather to call Arum’s bluff by agreeing to put Gervonta in with Lomachenko in order to see if the Top Rank promoter is serious about wanting to make that fight or not. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if Arum decided he didn’t want to make that fight. There other fights that Arum has his eyes on for Lomachenko against IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey, WBC champion Mikey Garcia, Luke Campbell and Teofimo Lopez. Putting a fight together between Lomachenko and Gervonta Davis would mean that Loma would need to come back down to 130 to make it happen. If Lomachenko still hasn’t unified the lightweight division, he probably won’ want to come back down in weight to fight Gervonta for his WBA 130 lb title. The boxing public would like to see a fight between Gervonta and Lomachenko, but right now is not a good time for the fight to get made.

Mayweather might pull the trigger on a fight between Tank Davis and Lomachenko in four years from now. Lomachenko would be 36, around the same age former middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin was when Golden Boy Promotions finally agreed to let Canelo fight him. It would be a situation where Lomachenko is old enough to no longer be the same fighter he is now, and Gervonta be more or less in his prime at 28. Physically, Gervonta is probably in his prime right now at 24. In four years from now, Davis will have outgrown the 130 lb division, and will be fighting at either 135 or 140. Those will be tougher weight classes for Gervonta, as he’s not that tall, and he’ll be fighting guys that are bigger, stronger and more capable of hurting him than right now with him fighting at super featherweight.

You can’t fault Mayweather for not making the Davis vs. Lomachenko fight right now. It’s still too early to have Gervonta take on a fighter like Lomachenko. If you look at the fights that Davis has had as a pro, and the type of guys that Mayweather is trying to match him against, old lions like Abner Mares and Yuriorkis Gamboa, they’re not ready to put him in against a guy like Lomachenko, Mikey Garcia or Miguel Berchelt. Those fights are probably not going to get made anytime soon if ever. If this was an old school situation were you were dealing with someone like Robert Duran, his management would likely match him against a guy like Lomachenko if he were 24 now, and offered the fight with him. Nowadays, promoters seem a lot more careful in how they match their fighters compared to back then when Duran was fighting.

Instead of Arum talking about Lomachenko-Davis, he should be bringing 21-year-old Teofimo Lopez into the equation for a fight against Davis. That’s a good fight, Gervonta vs. Teofimo. It would be interesting to know if Arum would be willing to make that fight.

Lomachenko (12-1, 9 KOs) fights tonight against former WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (34-6-3, 13 KOs) on ESPN+ at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Lomachenko is heavyweight favorite in the eyes of the bettors.