Gervonta Davis vs. Frank Martin is easy to overlook, but Tank’s return is big for boxing

Gervonta “Tank” Davis will be back in the ring on Saturday night, marking the return of one of boxing’s most talked-about stars and reliable draws as he puts his WBA lightweight title on the line against undefeated Frank Martin.

Davis (29-0, 27 KO) hasn’t been seen in action since his win over Ryan Garcia 14 months ago, in what was probably the biggest fight of 2023. The 29-year-old “Tank” will not have that level of spotlight against Martin (18-0, 12 KO), who just isn’t near Garcia’s level in notoriety and fame, but any time Davis fights, it’s a big deal for the boxing world.

As is usually the case, however, a lot of the talk days ahead of the fight is about what everyone would like to see Gervonta do next, once he’s done with this fight that pretty much everybody assumes he will win without much trouble.

Martin, also 29, is a good fighter. “The Ghost” has spent the last couple of years earnestly battling his way up the 135-pound ranks with wins over Romero Duno, Jackson Marinez, Michel Rivera, and Artem Harutyunyan, his most recent opponent, and a fight where we saw him struggle a good deal more than he had against the prior trio of opponents.

That struggle leads most to believe that Martin just won’t be good enough to pull the upset on Davis, and it’s a reasonable position. It is worth keeping in mind boxing’s “styles make fights” rule, because Davis fights nothing like Harutyunyan.

Unfortunately for Martin, the things he’s best at are things Davis excels in, too, and “Tank” also packs the power that Martin doesn’t. Davis is not an aggressive fighter by nature, taking his time to figure opponents out, but once he does, he lets the power go, and there’s a reason his knockout percentage is so high.

In a way, Saturday’s Gervonta return feels a little ho-hum, a little pedestrian, because the intrigue just isn’t there. It’s hard to even expect that he will come in unprepared and overlooking his opponent, because he never does that no matter how heavily he’s favored or how easy a fight is supposed to be.

It’s easy to want to look ahead, then, so are we any closer to Gervonta giving the public the fights they want to see instead of just lining up the next available PBC-affiliated name?

Boxing matchmaking is often overwhelmed by the political issues between various promoters and stables, and then further complicated by the broadcast deals tied to those promoters and stables.

Actual star fighters, though, ultimately have the most say, at least when they want to use their leverage. That’s how we got Tank vs Ryan Garcia last year; the fighters made that deal happen, Garcia in particular. Anything really can be done, and with the Saudi government showing wider-ranging interest in the sport, that’s more true than ever. Money will always talk in boxing, and they have a lot more of it than anyone else.

The key fights at 135 for Davis would be a long-awaited showdown with Vasiliy Lomachenko, who holds the WBO title, or a meeting with Shakur Stevenson, the WBC titleholder. Both of those fighters are currently with Top Rank and ESPN. Davis vs Lomachenko might come too late for Loma; as good as the Ukrainian still is, he’s past his best days. But Davis vs Shakur would be a meeting of two of boxing’s smartest in-ring tacticians, and they’ve floated a good bit of animosity into the world. Whether it’s real or not doesn’t even matter — it’s just about getting enough people to believe it’s real.

Maybe one of those guys will be across the ring from Davis next time we see him, whenever that comes, or maybe Davis will entertain a move up to 140, where he’s fought once and wasn’t quite himself, to take on someone like Devin Haney or Teofimo Lopez. There are always curveballs, too. It might sound crazy right now, but Davis may look at a currently soft welterweight division and a chance to become a four-division world champion with a favorable vacant title fight, now that Terence Crawford is moving up in weight.

Whatever it is, the real hope is that we see Davis in against someone you can reasonably see as a serious threat to him. Boxing is at its best when there is an actual split in opinion on who can win a fight and not just building, bit by bit, the marketability of a single fighter with carefully-chosen matchups, which unfortunately has been the bulk of Davis’ career, and seems most likely to be what we get this weekend.