The boxing world will converge on the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night, when the electric Gervonta Davis defends his WBA lightweight world championship against a rugged Frank Martin.
Davis (29-0, 27 knockouts) is coming off a seventh-round KO of Ryan Garcia in April 2023, while Martin (18-0, 12 KOs) scored a unanimous decision win over Artem Harutyunyan last July.
With the stakes ultra high, DAZN lists the keys to victory for each fighter ahead of their highly-anticipated bout.
Frank Martin’s keys to victory
Stick and move with combinations
A look at Martin’s unanimous decision victory over Harutyunyan last summer and you’ll see “The Ghost” did a nice job of peppering the German boxer with body-head combinations, moving him around the ring. Against Davis, Martin should look to unload his offense and move himself. Doing so will allow Martin to garner points and remain out of harm’s way.
Don’t get baited into phonebooth exchanges
Martin cannot afford to get overzealous and lured in by “Tank” often. Stepping into the phonebooth and trying to exchange with Davis over several sequences could spell the beginning of the end for Martin courtesy of Davis’ generational knockout power. And that goes back to the first key of landing output and resetting.
Step up to the moment
This is quite easily the biggest fight of Frank Martin’s career as he’s never faced a higher-profile opponent than Gervonta Davis. Not being blinded by the bright lights on this stage is key as is Martin making sure to not overly respect the more seasoned Davis.
Perhaps Teofimo Lopez told FightHubTV best: “I think if Frank Martin goes and presses ‘Tank’ Davis without showing him any respect, then we should see a different type of outing. However, if [Martin] comes in there just respecting the power and the hype behind Gervonta Davis, then I believe it will be an early night for Frank Martin.”
Gervonta Davis’ keys to victory
Make Martin feel the power early
Davis has the experience advantage and Martin getting adjusted to the brightest lights and biggest stage of his career bodes well for “Tank” to touch “The Ghost” with power early into the fight. Doing so could thwart Martin or at least make him think twice of trying to exchange with Davis, putting “Tank” in control.
Launch right uppercut
Martin sometimes abandons a tight guard. If Harutyunyan was able to sneak in a right uppercut, just imagine what Davis could do with the same weapon if landed. The shot right up the middle could wreak havoc on Martin if he’s not cautious.
Look for counters
Sensing an overzealous and overaggressive Martin creates an opening for Davis to measure him with counterpunches. With 27 of his 29 career victories coming by the way of KO, Davis being a knockout artist is given major attention — and rightfully so — but he also has tremendous boxing skills. His ability to counterpunch from his five-foot-five frame is key.
Peep the way he ducked under Ryan Garcia’s left hook to detonate a compact counter left of his own for a knockdown before KO’ing him in April 2023. Prior to that in May 2022, “Tank” ate a crunching body shot from Rolando Romero only to blast “Rolly” with a vicious counter left to the face for the knockout.
Being patient and responding to a Martin miscalculation might be all Davis needs to secure his thirtieth pro victory.
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