Boxing
Gervonta Davis responds to Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia calling him out and Terence Crawford's warning
Gervonta Davis took longer than expected to dispose of Yuriorkis Gamboa on Saturday night, but "Tank" still walked out of State Farm Arena in Atlanta with the WBA "regular" lightweight title in tow.
Davis' performance, which he graded a C+, definitely caught the attention of fellow boxing stars over the weekend. Early Sunday morning, after Davis' 12th-round TKO of Gamboa, Devin Haney took to Twitter to call "Tank" out for a fight in the new year.
WBO world welterweight champion Terence Crawford chimed in as well, warning Davis to not get in the ring with either Haney or unified world lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko following the Baltimore native's performance against Gamboa.
Rising star Ryan Garcia called Davis out for a title shot, adding that he and Haney need to get in the ring as well in 2020.Fresh off his victory, Davis learned of the tweets from Haney, Crawford and Garcia and fired back.
"Gamboa said I was better than (Crawford)," Davis told EsNews of the Cuban fighter, who's now a common opponent of both his and Crawford's. "He didn't say, 'I was better than him,' but he said I was the best. He said that I was younger than him, but I was better than him."
He added for good measure: "I'd touch Crawford up."
As for the tweets from Haney and Garcia, Davis said, "They want to do that" in order to secure big money fights against him. Delving deeper, Davis thought Haney's tweet was a strategy employed by the boxer's father.
"HIs dad told him to do that," Davis said. "He don't make no decisions on his own."
The 25-year-old also issued the following caveat to Haney and his dad for calling him out: "I'd knock that young n— out. He better relax."
In the lightweight division, on paper, Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez appear on a collision course to unify their world titles, with both boxers fighting under Top Rank and getting in the ring together following Lopez's victory over Richard Commey on Dec. 14.
One could make a similar case for Haney and Garcia scrapping, since both fight on DAZN. That would leave Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) as the odd one out, with his status as a PBC fighter further complicating things.
However, when these fights eventually happen, the division could be a hotbed for the most fireworks in boxing, period. Whether 2020 will be the year an undisputed world lightweight champion is crowned remains to be seen.
