By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten WBA Super Lightweight Champion Gervonta Davis of Baltimore, Maryland will be defending his title for the first time when he meets Isaac Cruz of Mexico City as the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California this Sunday, December 5th. The fight can be seen live in America on Showtime Pay Per View. Davis, the former WBA Lightweight and WBA and IBF Super Featherweight Champion won his latest belt in June when he stopped Mario Barrios in the 11th round. Cruz last fought in June as well when he beat former world champ Francisco Vargas via a 10-round unanimous decision.
The 26-year-old ‘Tank’ Davis was a 2012 National Golden Gloves Champion as an amateur and enters the fight with a perfect mark of 25-0 with 24 big Kos. He’s fought 96 rounds since turning pro back in 2013 due to his tremendous punching power and his knockouts over Leo Santa Cruz, Ricardo Nunez, Jesus Cuellar, Hugo Ruiz, Jose Pedraza and Liam Walsh were exceptional. The southpaw has the talent and power to be a long-reigning champion.
Davis currently has a knockout ratio of 96 per cent with the only opponent to take him the distance as a pro being German Meraz when the pair went six rounds back in 2014. However, Davis still managed to drop him in both the third and fifth rounds. Davis stopped Jose Pedraza in the seventh round for the IBF Super Featherweight Title in January of 2017 and then defended it four months later in England when he stopped Liam Walsh in the third round.
Davis’ first title reign came to an end in August, 2017 against Francesco Fonseca though when he failed to make weight. However, he stopped Fonseca in the eighth round. He then won the WBA version against Jesus Cuellar in April 2018 and defended it against Hugo Ruiz and Ricardo Nunez. He won the vacant WBA Lightweight Belt in December, 2019 when he stopped Yuriorkis Gamboa in the 12th round and defended it against Leo Santa Cruz a year later with a sixth-round stoppage before moving up in weight to fight Barrios. He stands just over 5-feet-5-inches tall and has a reach of 67.5 inches.
Cruz is just 23 years old and makes the ring walk with a record of 22-1-1 with 15 Kos. He’s boxed 111 rounds since making his pro debut in 2015 and also has good power in his fists with a current knockout ratio of 62.5 per cent. He’s 5-feet-4-inches tall with a 63-inch wingspan which puts him at a 1.5-inch height disadvantage to Davis while giving up 4.5 inches in reach.
Cruz will be stepping up in class here again as his toughest opponents to date have been an aging Francisco Vargas and former world champ Diego Magdaleno, who he stopped in just 53 seconds in 2020. Cruz’s lone defeat came at the hands of Luis Miguel Montano via an eight-round unanimous decision in February, 2016.
Prediction…
Davis has a decided edge in power and no matter what happens in the fight he can always end it with one punch. Cruz is an aggressive workhorse who needs to work his way inside to be successful but of course needs to watch out for getting nailed while closing the distance as well as Davis’ counterpunches. This should be an entertaining fight for as long as it lasts but I’m expecting Davis to retain his title.
