Former long-time HBO commentator Jim Lampley was ringside for Gervonta “Tank” Davis’ stoppage of Frank Martin in Las Vegas last June, providing text commentary for PPV.com, when he mused out loud about the Baltimore man's punching power.

“At one point I said, ‘You know, I don’t know if I’ve seen a more powerful puncher in this weight class since the days of the early Roberto Duran,’” Lampley told BoxingScene this week. “And one of the writers behind me at ringside, someone I trust, said, ‘Jim, you can’t say that. He hasn’t fought anybody yet.’ And I said, ‘Well, of course, there was probably a stage we could choose early in Duran’s career when, by your lights, he wouldn’t have fought anybody yet either.’ But the point I’m making is he’s explosive, he has dynamite in his fists. Tank Davis has punching power. He knows it. He's arrogant about it. He’s demonstrative about it. He’s ready to show it to you. It makes him a very exciting fighter.”

Much as some die-hards might grind their teeth at the comparison with "Hands of Stone," Lampley says he looks at Davis and sees a true, old school fighter.

“He’s a throwback in the sense, partially, that he comes from a fight town, Baltimore,” Lampley said. “He comes from the rough streets. His family background more or less dictated that he was going to fight in some way, shape or form. He chose boxing as his medium. I love that.”

Nor is that the only old-school element he sees in Davis.

“When I sat down to interview him for the first time, I was expecting a showy, obstreperous, ‘Look at me!’ kind of cyber-age interview. And instead, what I got was, again, a throwback. He was polite, he was gentlemanly, he was thoughtful, and he was respectful of his opponent, even though he was about to go in and thoroughly destroy him. I enjoyed that and I appreciated it.”

If Davis’ power reminded Lampley of Duran, his personality in that interview brought to mind another all-time great.

“The comparison I would make, based on past experiences with every fighter I covered intensely, is Mike Tyson,” he explained. “So I know this persona, and I like this persona. Mike has always been very respectful of the smart writers and smart broadcasters who understand the sport and understand who he is. Tank is that way too.”

In an age where boxing is becoming increasingly internationalized, where does Lampley rate Davis among U.S. fighters, if we posit that Terence Crawford is number one?

“As an attraction, he’s certainly way up there as a skilled practitioner and somebody who’s trying to establish his ultimate mark on the sport,” he observed. “I hearken back to the writer I respect, who said, ‘You can’t say that; he hasn’t fought anybody yet.’ And you know, it was pretty clear within two or three rounds [of the Frank Martin fight] that Martin, whatever he had done in the ring up to that point, was inadequate to really test Tank Davis. Now here we go again.

“We’ll find out Saturday whether Lamont Roach Jnr is any better prepared for Tank than Frank Martin was. He's a good boxer, pretty skilled. Can certainly hold his own against lots of other guys in the division. But Tank is Tank, and you’re likely to be looking at another knockout. I’m not entirely qualified to make that judgment to be fair; I haven’t really seen enough of Lamont Roach. I do know that he is an athlete and a skilled fighter, but Tank Davis is a hard punching annihilate-you phenomenon, and I will not be shocked if we see another performance along those lines on Saturday night.”

But returning to that suggestion that Davis has yet to build up the kind of resume that would enable him to be mentioned alongside some of the greats: what are some of the steps Lampley, who will be again be ringside in Las Vegas for PPV.com on Saturday, would like to see Davis take to shut down that line of argument?

After all, potential matchups with the likes of Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney, or Shakur Stevenson have yet to materialize. But Lampley suspects that were they to do so, Davis is the man most likely to be standing at the top of the pile afterward.

“There’s still Teofimo, maybe Vasyl Lomachenko, and a couple of others –  including Keyshawn Davis, who showed his aptitude [against Denys Berinchyk]. Devin Haney is still around and fighting at that weight class, and has another chance to refurbish his reputation coming up. So it’s still, if not crowded, a talented weight class of fighters. And there’s a great chance there for Tank Davis if he wants to go through the enterprise of trying to mow them all down to become a recognizable great in the sport. He’s the one who, in my view, has the best chance to do that.”

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcast about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He presently co-hosts the “Fighter Health Podcast” with Dr. Margaret Goodman. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.