Ak and Barak praised Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis for his honesty after his win against Mario Barrios this weekend.
Davis put Barrios on the canvas twice in the eighth round before stopping his first 140lb opponent in the 11th session, and he admitted that he had been somewhat nervous about getting in the ring after fighting below the weight for the rest of his career.
The win earned ‘Tank’ the super lightweight WBA interim championship, and Barak said that the win had come in a measured and conservative performance.
“My biggest takeaway was actually outside of doing, you know, I'm about character,” he said on the DAZN Boxing Show.
“And I was really impressed that Gervonta was so truthful in the post fight press conference, talking about how nervous he was and how yes, he wanted to get him out of there.
“But he was nervous about getting in the ring with a 140 pound fighter, thinking that maybe he's baiting me in, maybe he's throwing soft shots. So I can get bowled, come in like I normally do, and get caught with something big. And I appreciated him being very, very honest. “
Ak agreed there was little surprise in Davis taking his time to adjust and get used to the power of his opponent,
“I wasn't shocked that it took him a few rounds when he was down the first few rounds on the unofficial scorecard. I mean, he was down on my card as well. But that's a different story,” he explained.
“Because guess what, Davis didn't allow it to go to the judges. So we wouldn't have had any controversy. He stopped them, knocked them down at eight two times, and then eventually stopped him in the fight.
“So I think Davis had a stellar performance this past weekend. I was overly impressed with him fighting at 140 and still carrying his power to that division the way he did.”