I’ve lost track of exactly how many of his nine lives Gervonta “Tank” Davis has used up, but suffice to say the supply is dwindling.

We’re talking about a guy who only remains undefeated because a referee who watched him take a voluntary knee decided to ignore the rules regarding what is and isn’t a knockdown.

And we’re talking about a guy who once walked away unscathed from a private jet crash. (That one was worth at least a couple of lives.)

In the latest incident suggesting Davis may be part feline, he had a domestic violence charge — which seemed it was going to blow up any pugilistic plans he had for the rest of the year, if not for multiple years — dropped last week.

Right or wrong, that development is a potential positive for fight fans.

For the 30-year-old Davis, there are — as has been the case almost his whole career — plenty of highly appealing options for him as a boxer.

Too bad he has chosen to ignore all of those highly appealing options to pull over into the circus sideshow lane.

As reported yesterday, the 135-pound Davis will next face the 200-pound Jake Paul in an exhibition bout in Atlanta on November 14.

(Let’s all pause for the deepest of sighs.)

Well, there’s always his next fight after this one. Ranked here are the top five opponents I’d prefer to see Tank fighting in November, and would most strongly advocate for him to face whenever his next actual, sanctioned boxing match rolls around:

1. Shakur Stevenson

This matchup between pound-for-pound-level pure boxer and pound-for-pound-level puncher-boxer (it doesn’t quite feel right to call Davis a boxer-puncher) has been staring everyone in the face for a couple of years now, the must-make matchup of American mega-talents in the lightweight division.

And it is hitting that point now where it’s in danger of over-marinating.

Stevenson has never been hotter, as he is coming off a win over William Zepeda that was decidedly non-boring.

Davis absolutely has been hotter — you could almost argue he’s never been colder — but so what? A cooled-off Tank is still one of the most bankable stars in the game. And it’s never felt more like his career clock is ticking.

Tank vs. Shakur remains the fight to make at 135 lbs, regardless of whether this qualifies as the absolute perfect time for it. It’s the best and biggest fight at lightweight for both of them, and it’s what’s best for the sport of boxing after the Davis-Paul freakshow has concluded.

2. Keyshawn Davis

Part of me doesn’t want to see bad behavior rewarded.

But the part of me that just wants to see the best damn fights doesn’t care.

Davis vs. Davis is marketable. Bad boy vs. bad boy is also marketable. And this pairing of one bad boy Davis and the other bad boy Davis just happens to be a tremendous boxing match on paper.

Keyshawn is relatively unproven. But against the opposition he’s faced, he has frequently looked like the next big thing — particularly in eviscerating Denis Berinchyk in February. He may just be the finest Davis from the Mid-Atlantic region in the lightweight division today. But there’s only one way to find out. (And it doesn’t involve Fort Washington, Maryland’s Deric “Scooter” Davis, although he’s also promising at 7-0 at age 23.)

In all seriousness, Gervonta vs. Keyshawn is a fascinating matchup of young men with a lot of maturing left to do but with all the talent in the world as fighters. The timing may be slightly imperfect, but perhaps while Tank and Paul are doing whatever it is they’ll be doing together, Keyshawn can do something to erase the stench of blowing weight for the Edwin De Los Santos fight and then allegedly jumping Nahir Albright.

One meaningful win to raise his profile and one accompanying positive news cycle would go a long way before the marketing machine tries to sell him as the right opponent for Tank.

3. Lamont Roach Jnr

We all know that line from “Unforgiven” (later borrowed in “The Wire”): “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” Unfortunately for Roach, who probably deserves a fight with Tank more than anyone, that quote fully applies to the politics of boxing.

Roach is the above-referenced fighter who was not credited with a knockdown when Davis took a knee, and ended up hanging a controversial draw on Tank’s record instead of a loss.

The first Davis-Roach fight, on March 1, reportedly produced a shade over 260,000 pay-per-view buys, which is respectable, but a dip from Tank’s previous two bouts. A rematch would likely sell better than the first fight now that audiences know Roach can compete with Davis, but still — there’s no denying Davis-Roach II would generate less money than most, if not all, of the other fights in these rankings, and, sadly, less than his “fight” with Paul will.

But this isn’t a list of what Davis should do, from either a financial standpoint or a “deserves” standpoint. It’s a list of who I want to see him face. And I want to see him face Roach again, to find out if he’s one of those exceptional fighters who adjusts and improves in rematches … or if he simply found his level in the crafty and capable Roach.

4. Teofimo Lopez

Hey, remember the Four Princes? It was a fine piece of branding by my pal Kieran Mulvaney, even if they very much failed to live up to any Four Kings comparisons. Still, Davis was one of the four, and Lopez was another, and we haven’t seen enough Prince-on-Prince matchups, so why not?

Lopez remains the lineal junior welterweight champion, so there’s something legitimately meaningful at stake here. They’re two of the most athletically gifted boxers to come along in recent years, and it strikes me as pretty darned close to a 50-50 fight on paper.

Together, they could sell out Madison Square Garden or Barclays Center with ease, no matter how high you jack up the ticket prices. Put it anywhere in New York, really. (Well, anywhere except in Times Square in front of a private crowd of 300 VIPs.)

Tank vs. The Takeover. #TheTankover. You’re welcome for the free slogan, powers-that-be.

5. Manny Pacquiao

Believe me, I’m as surprised as you are that I’m suggesting this. I’d really prefer it if Pacquiao was retired. But it seems he’s going to fight on, and, based on what we saw against Mario Barrios, he’s still vaguely competent. Sure, he’s a shadow of what he used to be. But he’s not nearly as washed as I assumed he was.

Pac-Man vs. Tank is a little bit of a circus fight — they’re two weight classes apart, and one guy is 46 years old — but compared to certain other circus fights that are actually happening, its offensiveness is decidedly tame.

And it has all the star power you could ask for, not to mention a dash of white-hat-vs.-black-hat appeal with the beloved Hall of Famer against the guy who just bobbed and weaved his way past yet another domestic violence accusation.

So, yeah, all things considered, I don’t hate Davis-Pacquiao. It’s just barely in the top five fights I’d like to see Tank in next, but it’s in there.

And it’s leaps, bounds and top-rope backflips ahead of what we’re actually getting.

 

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with nearly 30 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.