Gervonta Davis analyses Canelo vs. Jacobs, calls it “50-50 fight”

By Sean Jones

Boxingnews24.com

Superstar in the making Gervonta “Tank” Davis says he’s looking forward to the middleweight unification fight next month between IBF champion Daniel Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) and WBA/WBC champ Saul Canelo Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs) on May 4 on DAZN at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Gervonta says he views the fight as a 50-50 match-up in which both Canelo and Jacobs have a chance to win it based on their huge talent.

Gervonta (21-0, 20 KOs), who holds the WBA Super World super featherweight title, is high on both Canelo and Jacobs. He says he cannot wait to see them square off on May 4. Davis saw how Jacobs was able to counter former IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin a number of times in their fight in March 2017. He liked what he saw of Jacobs in that fight.

“I think Canelo is a great fighter. I think he’s one of the best OGs that is still boxing that I’m high on,” Gervonta Davis said to Fighthub in analyzing Canelo’s unification fight against Daniel Jacobs on May 4. “I also like Joppy [sic] too. It’s going to be a great fight. I can’t see a winner. I’m a fan. I’m ready to watch the fight. I’ve seen Joppy [Jacobs] counter GGG a few times,” Gervonta said in getting a tad bit confused with Jacobs’ name in calling him “Joppy” twice.

Obviously, Gervonta is a little unclear on how to pronounce Jacobs’ name. Hopefully, Gervonta isn’t getting Jacobs confused with former WBA middleweight champion William Joppy (40-7-2, 30 KOs), because he’s been retired for eight years since 2011. Joppy was a good fighter back in the day, but he’s long gone from the sport.

“I believe Canelo’s more quicker. I wouldn’t say more explosive, because Joppy, he can fight too, and he’s explosive too,” Tank Davis said. “This is a big 50-50 fight. May the best man win that night,” Gervonta said.

As you can tell, Davis is unsure who is going to win the Canelo vs. Jacobs fight. But listening to Davis talk, he seems to really like Canelo a lot. It’s an important fight for Alvarez. The 28-year-old Canelo has had two controversial fights against Gennady Golovkin, and he recently beat a flawed super middleweight champion in Rocky Fielding that his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions set hi up with. Canelo need a solid win without controversy over Jacobs to give him his first victory against A-level fighter during his career.

Canelo has a lot wins, but against mostly older guys, and smaller fighters than himself. You can’t Canelo’s win over GGG as being a true victory because it was controversial, and it took place at the same venue [T-Mobile] as the first fight between them in 2017, which also ended in controversy with the judges scoring the contest a 12 draw. Canelo’s other wins in the last five years have come against these fighters: Fielding, Amir Khan, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., James Kirkland, Miguel Cotto, Liam Smith, and Alfredo Angulo. Cotto was passed his best when Canelo fought him, and he’s the only good fighter of the bunch. Like this writer said, Canelo’s win over GGG was too controversial to call it a true win. A lot of boxing fans saw the second Canelo vs. Golovkin fight a draw, and the first fight between them a victory for GGG.

“Nobody has the advantage. Danny was already middleweight first. Canelo moved up to middleweight,” Roy Jones Jr. said to Fino boxing. “Danny has quicker hand speed, and they both got good power. Danny’s hands [arms] are also longer, so Danny’s got the distance thing, but Canelo is a great counter puncher. So it’s the boxer vs. the counter puncher, which usually provides the best fights ever,” Jones said.

The taller fighter Jacobs is in a bind. If he uses his longer height and reach to fight at range the entire night, the judges could give Canelo the win or score it a draw. Assuming Jacobs takes the fight to Canelo, he’ll get countered, and lose the fight. The only Jacobs can improve his chances of winning is to go out there looking to knockout Canelo to take the fight out of the judges’ hands. Having the fight take place at a neutral would have been the best solution to ensure that the judges aren’t leaning in the direction of the home fighter Canelo right off the bat, but Jacobs will have to deal with the cards he was given and try to take the fight out of the judges’ hands by knocking the Mexican star out.

A few knockdowns might also do the trick for Jacobs, but that’s not going to be easy to do. Canelo can take a good shot, and he’s never been hurt to the point in any of his fights where he came close to being knocked out. Jose Miguel Cotto had Canelo badly hurt in their fight in 2010 when he unloaded on him with a flurry of shots early in the fight. That approach would seem to be the best way for Jacobs to win this fight. Canelo looked like he was coming unglued when Cotto flurried on him.

Fights between boxers and counter punchers aren’t usually exciting. Jones has it backwards. It’s fights between sluggers and counter punchers that are the exciting contests. Counter punchers are passive fighters, who wait for their opponent to come after them so they can counter them. Floyd Mayweather Jr., a pure boxer, stayed on the outside and jabbed Canelo all night long in beating him by a 12 round majority decision in 2013.

Canelo couldn’t counter Mayweather, because he was boxing him with his jab. Counter punchers like Canelo need their opponents to come after them with power punches in order for him to land his shots. Golovkin tried using the Mayweather blueprint for his first fight with Canelo, but the judges didn’t give him the win, even though he appeared to beat him even easier than Mayweather did.

In the second fight, Golovkin fell into the trap of trying to slug with Canelo in order to win a decision or knock him out. This enabled Canelo to land his counter shots. Canelo also came forwards and pressured GGG. The judges liked the way Canelo did that, as they responded by giving him rounds. However, Canelo gassed out in the last four rounds and this led to GGG catching up to him to even the fight out.