Via Chris Williams: Bernard Hopkins said that he “praise” Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis for ditching Floyd Mayweather Jr to get the big fight he wanted with Ryan Garcia on April 15 on Showtime PPV. Although the war has yet to be signed, it is expected to happen.
Bernard said that the WBA’s ‘regular’ lightweight champion Tank Davis (28-0.26 KOs) had to cross the Oscar De La Hoya pond to get his big fight against Ryan.
For Floyd, it must have been a huge disappointment for him to lose Tank Davis from a Mayweather promotion because it was the only big start he had.
Would Tank stay if Mayweather stacked him up with the likes of Ryan, Devin Haney, Vasyl Lomachenko, Frank Martin, Shakur Stevenson and Teofimo Lopez?
Hopkins said that Tank Davis wouldn’t let “episode TV series” The affair between Mayweather and De La Hoya affected him.
Tanks must break the chains
“You look at Tank Davis and why he has to prove that he has made the changes in his life and career that he has been criticized for doing. Leaving Floyd Mayweather to cross the pond, especially the Oscar De La Hoya pond,” Bernard Hopkins told fight TV center.
“Can you understand the backlash you get for doing that? I commend Tank for saying, ‘This is my career. You’ve got yours. I respect you for buying me a chain, buy me this, buy me that, and get me on a jet.’ All of that is great.
“I just followed his interview. You’ve seen it, and I’ve seen it. Tank sat back and said, ‘Guess what? ‘Thank you Floyd Mayweather for everything you’ve given me. If the intention is that you only care about me, but I had a chance to fight this great war [against Ryan Garcia] and This soap opera between you and Oscar For all these years, I won’t let it affect me.’ That is my interpretation.
“The tank wants to fight, but he must be freed from the shackles of someone he still respects and then being respected and feeling like, ‘I’m going to do him wrong if I do this.’ Someone and Tank had many conversations where he said, ‘I have to do what I have to do. This is my career.’
“Once you get the chance to go through a career and take the opportunity to box for 20 years like Bernard Hopkins, you can’t risk it. You have to take the opportunity to cut back a bit if possible and let others do the work behind you and take care of the details so you can do what you do best.
“Tank Davis wants to do what he’s best at and he wants to be the most popular boxer right now, not just in terms of numbers because we live in a social media world where you have to respect that. That’s because, yes, skills come at a cost, but the customer also helps,” says Hopkins.
Gervonta-Ryan will motivate other boxers
“Both have customers. We know what Ryan has,” Hopkins said. “We know what Tank has. We need a war. We aspire to boxing for a fight of this caliber. Anyone who denies that is insane. There are a lot of things out there that people either like or don’t.
“Do you know what will leave the other super fighters waiting in limbo to see if they want to take their careers and decision making in their own hands and do fights like Tank is doing? ?” Hopkins said when asked what would happen to get Errol Spence Jr against Terence Crawford.
“Traffic management is really going to start activating other fighters. Bud Crawford, that fight didn’t happen to him and Spence. What will they do when they see the door open? The young warriors would sit back and they would say, ‘No, wait, they need us. Don’t go anywhere.’
“It was a good thing three, four, five years ago when they got 12 rounds of money. Al Haymon couldn’t pay them that money anymore. That was stopped, and now they’re all scattered. ‘Hey, can you let me in?’ And you have to remember. Every time you still fight if that contract is still viable to the day it expires you still have to give that man 35.25% of your money.
“Now they are starting to realize that I have to give money to Al? Correct. He’s not a promoter; he is a consultant. He passed the Muhammad Ali act that I supported because it created that law. Now you have been cheated because he is under an advisor, which the Ali act does not cover.
“Now you are there with Arum; you are here with us, you are here with that. The well is dry. You’ve got this big house. You’ve got all these cars. That’s when everything was fine. You are being paid too much.
“You get maintenance, you get bills and you pay taxes at the wrong time, and then Covid hits. That exposes a lot of fraud. If your money doesn’t fit, it’s funny, and a lot of everyone’s money is funny too.
“I am still living off the interest. I have a Costco card,” Hopkins said.
