A Gervonta Davis-Vasiliy Lomachenko fight doesn’t appear any closer to happening now than three years ago.
If they were to square off, though, Davis believes he would stop Lomachenko inside of 10 rounds. That was the take Davis gave WBA president Gilberto Mendoza during a recent interview on social media.
“I see myself breaking him down during the, probably about the ninth, 10th round,” Davis said. “I see myself breaking him down. It’s not too many people out there that can, you know, stand toe-to-toe [with] me, especially at 130 or 135. I don’t see nobody standing toe-to-toe with me.”
Baltimore’s Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) is in position to face Ukraine’s Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs).
The powerful southpaw won the WBA world lightweight title in his last fight – a 12th-round technical knockout of Cuba’s Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-3, 18 KOs) on December 28 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Lomachenko is the WBA’s “super” champion at lightweight.
They still are headed in different directions following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Davis has agreed to move back down to the junior lightweight division for a 130-pound fight against Leo Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs). They’ll headline a Showtime Pay-Per-View event later this year, on a date and at a site to be determined.
Lomachenko, meanwhile, is expected to face Teofimo Lopez (15-0, 12 KOs) in a lightweight title unification fight. Lomachenko and Lopez were tentatively scheduled to meet May 30 at Madison Square Garden in New York, but their fight was postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus crisis.
When Mendoza asked Davis if he would rather fight Lomachenko, Ryan Garcia or Devin Haney, Davis didn’t single out one of those potential opponents.
“If we can make it happen, it could be all of ‘em, to be honest,” Davis said. “Not no specific fighter. It could be all of ‘em. I’m willing to fight all of ‘em. … It’s gotta be on the right time, right money-wise and things like that. But I’m all for it.”
Regardless, the 25-year-old Davis views himself as one of the best boxers in the sport.
“Not to be cocky,” Davis said, “but I think I’m probably one of the top skillful fighters that fight on TV now, besides Canelo, Pacquiao, I wanna say Errol [Spence] and Terence [Crawford], things like that. But I feel like I have enough skills to be one of them top guys.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.