Floyd Mayweather has urged Gervonta Davis to rely more on his boxing skills during training camp for his upcoming fight against Leo Santa Cruz.
Mayweather, whose company promotes Davis, has helped his head trainer, Calvin Ford, prepare the unbeaten Baltimore native for this Showtime Pay-Per-View bout at Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas. The retired five-division champion has coached Davis on how to handle his first pay-per-view main event both inside and outside of the ring.
Mayweather wants the 25-year-old Davis to prove to fans and media who mostly consider him a puncher that he can box as well. Davis has knocked out 96 percent of his pro opponents, but Mayweather stressed that there are more dimensions to Davis’ game than power.
“A lot of people don’t know that Tank’s boxing skills is really better than his power,” Mayweather said during a virtual press conference. “He just didn’t have to use his boxing skills. But Tank can really, really box his ass off. So, when we in the boxing gym … we tell Tank a lot of times, ‘Stop always resorting just to your power and use your boxing skills.’ And that’s what Tank did in this training camp.”
Mayweather also praised Santa Cruz for his versatility a few weeks in advance of their 12-round, 130-pound championship match at Alamodome in San Antonio. The 32-year-old Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) isn’t considered a puncher, certainly not within the 130-pound division, but the Rosemead, California, resident is a resilient, relentless volume puncher who promised he’ll thoroughly test the favored Davis (23-0, 22 KOs).
“We know we have a hard fight, I think the hardest fight in my career,” Santa Cruz said. “We’re facing, you know, a hard-hitting fighter. You know, he’s got great skills and he’s, you know, being trained by the best ever, Floyd Mayweather. I know he’s gonna come with everything. So, you know, my determination is to go out there, beat Tank Davis, and I can say I beat one of the best, and I beat, you know, a fighter that’s been trained by Mayweather. So that, for me, that’s gonna be something really big, really great. I’m motivated in the gym. I wanna go out there and give the fans a great fight.”
–boxingscene.com
