By Keith Idec
LAS VEGAS – Gervonta Davis and his promoter, Floyd Mayweather Jr., have been unapologetic about refusing to consider a fight against Vasyl Lomachenko just yet.
Mayweather has made it clear that the fast-developing Davis won’t pursue a 130-pound title unification fight against Lomachenko any time soon. If it never happens, the 22-year-old Davis doesn’t think it’ll adversely affect his career.
“I don’t think [I’ll be] disappointed,” Davis said before a press conference Thursday at MGM Grand. “If the fight happens, it happens. I believe that he’s a great fighter. I don’t think he’ll make my career. It’s not that I can say I have to fight him for my career to go well. If the fight happens, it happens. I wish him the best with his upcoming fight and I’m focused on my fight.”
Davis referred to Lomachenko’s potential fight against WBA 122-pound champion Guillermo Rigondeaux on December 9 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. The powerful southpaw from Baltimore is looking forward to watching Ukraine’s Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs) battle Cuba’s Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs, 1 NC) if their deal gets finalized.
For now, though, Davis (18-0, 17 KOs) is focused on the expansive platform on which he’ll fight Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Davis is scheduled to defend his IBF super featherweight title against unknown Costa Rican Francisco Fonseca (19-0-1, 13 KOs) in the co-featured fight before Mayweather meets UFC superstar Conor McGregor in a 12-round, 154-pound main event (Showtime Pay-Per-View; $99.95 in HD).
Davis is listed as a 50-1 favorite over Fonseca by most Las Vegas and Internet sports books. Assuming Davis defeats Fonseca, he hopes to pursue a 130-pound title unification fight against WBC champion Miguel Berchelt (32-1, 28 KOs) or WBA champion Jezreel Corrales (22-1, 8 KOs, 1 NC).
“I actually wanna unify pretty soon,” Davis said. “If not unify, move up to 35 and get a fight at 135 [against] one of them champs up there. I’m open for it. … I might move up. If I don’t get a [unification fight] against one of the guys at 30, I’m gonna move up to 35 to try to get one of them belts, and then probably move back down.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
