Leonard Ellerbe is confident Gervonta Davis will be able to make the 130-pound limit without having any issues at the weigh-in for his fight against Leo Santa Cruz.
The date and site for their Showtime Pay-Per-View bout are not set because those details cannot be solidified until the COVID-19 pandemic ends. But Davis, as he had repeatedly stated he would do, has agreed to move back down from the lightweight limit of 135 pounds to the junior lightweight maximum of 130 pounds for their 12-round fight.
“Tank won’t have any problems,” Ellerbe, Mayweather Promotions’ CEO, told BoxingScene.com regarding Davis making 130 pounds again. “He’s working, staying around the gym. He understands the seriousness of being a professional. He has a very good understanding of that. He’s really excited about fighting Santa Cruz.”
Davis’ notorious troubles making weight continued the day before his last fight, his debut at 135 pounds December 28 in Atlanta. The unbeaten Baltimore native came in 1¼ pounds over the limit on his first trip to the Georgia Athletic & Entertainment Commission’s scale, but eventually he officially weighed 134½ pounds for his WBA world lightweight title fight against Yuriorkis Gamboa.
The powerful southpaw stopped Cuba’s Gamboa (30-3, 18 KOs) in the 12th round at State Farm Arena.
Davis previously was stripped of his IBF junior lightweight title in August 2017 because he was two pounds too heavy for his 130-pound title defense against Nicaragua’s Francisco Fonseca. Davis knocked out Fonseca in the eighth round on the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor undercard at T-Mobile Arena, yet he still left Las Vegas an ex-champion.
“Tank can make 130,” Ellerbe said. “It’s just about staying disciplined and buckling down. He can do it. He’s done it several times. He’s young. It’s just a matter of him staying disciplined. He’s working very hard on doing that. You’re gonna have temporary setbacks. It’s all part of the learning curve. He’s had a couple tough spots there with [making weight], but he understands the severity of all of that and what it takes to be a professional and having the proper discipline. He has a full grasp on that, and he’s excited about moving forward and fighting Santa Cruz in a huge fight.”
Ellerbe and Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza told BoxingScene.com last month that Davis-Santa Cruz would headline a Showtime Pay-Per-View event at some point later this year, once the coronavirus crisis is over. The Athletic’s Mike Coppinger first reported Thursday that they definitely would meet at the 130-pound limit.
Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) initially said he would go up to 135 pounds to face Davis (23-0, 22 KOs), but he later stated that he would only take the fight if it was contested at 130 pounds.
The four-division champion from Rosemead, California, has fought just once at 130 pounds. Santa Cruz won the WBA’s “super” championship at that weight in his last fight – a 12-round, unanimous-decision defeat of Houston’s Miguel Flores (24-3, 12 KOs) on November 23 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Davis gave up the title Santa Cruz won by defeating Flores when he moved up to lightweight to box Gamboa.
–boxingscene.com
