By: William Holmes
On Saturday night, one of Mayweather Promotions prized signings, Gervonta “Tank” Davis, will take on former unified featherweight world champion Yoriorkis Gamboa for the WBA Lightweight Title.
This bout will be a part of a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) card to be televised live on Showtime from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. The co-main event of the night will be a WBA Light Heavyweight Title Fight between Jean Pascal and Badou Jack.
Other bouts on the undercard will include a super middleweight bout between Jose Uzcategui and Lionell Thompson and aIBF/WBO Junior Featherweight eliminator between Angelo Leo and Cesar Juarez.
The following is a preview of the co-main event and main event of the night.
Jean Pascal (34-6-1) vs. Badou Jack (22-2-3); WBA Light Heavyweight Title
Despite the fact he’s currently thirty seven years old, Jean Pascal was able to defeat father time and score the upset win over Marcus Browne when he was last seen in a ring in August of 2019.
On Saturday he’ll be facing an opponent closer to his age, a thirty six year old Badou Jack, when he defends his title.
Pascal will have about a two and a half inch height advantage as well as about an inch reach advantage over Jack. Both boxers had successful amateur careers. Pascal is Canadian Amateur National Champion and competed in the 2004 Olympics. Jack is a Swedish National Amateur Champion and competed in the 2008 Olympics.
Pascal has been slightly more active than Jack. He fought once in 2019, twice in 2018, and two times in 2017. Jack has fought once in 2019, once in 2018, and twice in 2017.
Pascal has defeated the likes of Marcus Browne, Ahemd Albiali, Yunieski Gonzalez, Lucian Bute, Chad Dawson, and Adrian Diaconu. His loses were to Dmitry Bivol, Eleider Alvarez, Sergey Kovalev (twice), Carl Froch, and Bernard Hopkins.
Jack has defeated the likes of Nathan Cleverly, Lucian Bute, George Groves, Anthony Dirrell, and Farrah Ennis. His losses were to Derek Edwards and Marcus Browne.
This is a tough bout to pick, as both boxers are relatively the same age and evenly matched. Pascal appears to have a slight power advantage as he has more stoppage wins than Jack.
This writer has to give a very slight edge to Pascal, but believes this is a pick-em fight.
Gervonta Davis (22-0) vs. Yoriorkis Gamboa (30-2); WBA Lightweight Title
If this fight happened when Gamboa was five years younger, it would have been considered a must watch fight.
However, Gamboa is thirty eight years old now, thirteen years Davis’ elder, and is clearly past his athletic prime. He’s still in good shape, and his deep amateur background may give Davis some issues early on, but Davis’ age and power will be difficult for Gamboa to overcome.
Davis and Gamboa are the same height, but Davis will have a two and a half inch reach advantage over Gamboa. They both had stellar amateur careers, with Davis being a Police Athletic League National Champion and a Golden Gloves National Champion. Gamboa however had the better international career as an amateur, as he won the gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Gamboa does have a significant edge in power. He has stopped twenty one of his twenty two opponents, while Gamboa has only stopped eighteen opponents and has two stoppage losses on his resume.
Both boxers have been fairy inconsistent with their activity. Davis fought twice in 2019 and only once in 2018, but fought three times in 2017. Gamboa fought once in 2019 and once in 2018, but fought four times in 2017.
Davis has been been defeated, or come close to it. He has beaten the likes of Ricardo Nunez, Hugo Ruiz, Jesus Cuellar, Francisco Fonseca, Liam Walsh, and Jose Pedraza. Even though Gamboa is thirty eight years old, this is likely the toughest test of Davis’ career.
Gamboa has defeated the likes of Roman Martinez, Miguel Beltran Jr., Jason Sosa, Darleys Perez, Daniel Ponce De Leon, Jonathan Barros, and Orlando Salido. His losses were to Robinson Castellanos and Terence Crawford.
Gamboa should he ready for this fight, as a loss will surely spell the end of him receiving legitimate title shots. However, Davis is just too young and too powerful for Gamboa, who has shown an ability to get knocked out.
Davis might have problems early on against Gamboa, but should end the fight strong and maybe stop Gamboa late.
