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Gervonta Davis vs Mario Barrios and Erickson Lubin vs Jeison Rosario Headline Showtime Pay-per-view Event June 26th
By: Hans Themistode
Gervonta Davis will no longer drain his body in order to make weight.
The former two-division world champion has long been rumored to take on current WBA “Regular” super lightweight world champion Mario Barrios. Now, with Showtime Boxing officially releasing their spring/summer schedule, those rumors have been confirmed.
Outside of his most recent contest against Leo Santa Cruz, Davis (24-0, 23 KOs) has a long history of struggling to make weight. In August of 2017, the Baltimore native failed to make weight for his showdown against Francisco Fonseca and was subsequently stripped of his title at the weigh-in. Davis would still go on to stop Fonseca in the third round of their contest.
In December of 2019, Davis opted to move up to the 135 pound division to take on long faded title contender Yuriorkis Gamboa with the vacant WBA “Regular” title on the line. Despite making the move five pounds north, Davis failed to make weight on the first try. He would then strip down to make the 135-pound weight limit. Regardless of his issues on the scale, Davis went on to stop Gamboa before taking on his toughest test to date in Leo Santa Cruz, starching him in the sixth round of their contest that took place at a contracted weight of 130 pounds.
Although Davis has shown an ability to walk right through his opponents, he’ll face several disadvantages when he takes on Barrios (26-0, 17 KOs). The San Antonio Texas, native will walk into their contest with a four-inch reach and five-inch height advantage.
With both men slated to square off on a Showtime pay-per-view event on June 26th, they’ll receive a major boost in the form of an action packed co-main event.
Former unified 154-pound champion Jeison Rosario will take on streaking contender Erickson Lubin. Both are looking to jump back into the championship mix with a win come fight night.
For Rosario (20-2-1, 14 KOs), he burst onto the scene following a stunning fifth-round upset win against Julian Williams in January of 2020. The win for Rosario may have netted him both the WBA and IBF world titles but his reign at the top of the mountain was truncated in his next ring appearance against Jermell Charlo. The aforementioned Charlo would go on to drop Rosario in the first and sixth-round before ultimately stopping him in brutal fashion in the eighth.
In the case of Lubin (23-1, 16 KOs), he’ll look to place even more distance between himself and his own knockout defeat at the hands of Charlo. The two battled it out in a highly anticipated contest in October of 2017. While it was thought to be a closely fought contest going in, Charlo ended things early with a one-punch knockout. Since then, Lubin has reeled off five straight wins.
Currently, the Florida product occupies the number one ranking in the WBC sanctioning body and looks to further solidify his title shot come June 26th.
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Rolando “Rolly” Romero Sides With Mario Barrios In Possible Gervonta Davis Clash: “Barrios Can Crack, I Think He Might Be A Little Too Big”
By: Hans Themistode
Rolando “Rolly” Romero was taken aback when he first heard the news. The WBA “Regular” 135-pound belt holder had no idea that Gervonta “Tank” Davis was considering a move up, let alone on his way to finalizing a deal to face WBA “Regular” Jr welterweight champion, Mario Barrios.
There contest isn’t set in stone just yet, but according to multiple sources, that is the route Davis will elect to go down this Summer.
Recently, Davis (24-0, 23 KOs) competed at 130 pounds, knocking out former multiple division titlist Leo Santa Cruz. He’s also fought at 135 pounds as well, struggling against long faded Yuriokis Gamboa before ultimately stopping him.
In the opinion of Romero, Davis had no business at 135 and certainly shouldn’t even think about making the move even higher up in weight.
“He’s not really a 35 pounder,” said Romero during an interview with Fight Hype. “He needs to stay at 30, keep bullying those little 126 pounders. He’s going to be a megastar at 130 but who’d he fight at 35? A way past his Gamboa that he struggled with. Gamboa don’t care about boxing anymore. If Tank fights a 35 pounder with some pop, it’s not going to go good for him and at 140, it’s definitely not going to go good for him.”
In the case of Barrios (26-0, 17 KOs), Romero considers him someone with a lot of punching power. The San Antonio Texas, native has stopped eight of his last nine opponents, including most recently, Ryan Karl, on ironically enough, the undercard of Davis vs Santa Cruz on Halloween night last year.
When measuring the power of Barrios, Romero simply looks up as if he is reminiscing and then grabs his jaw and smiles.
“Barrios can crack. I sparred Barrios before. I think he might be a little too big. Barrios is too tall and throws these really good uppercuts. He’s a big boy, Tank is really short.”
Those who believe Davis will get the job done should their contest come to fruition, will point to when Barrios struggled against Batyr Akhmedov in late 2019. The end result may have been a unanimous decision victory but plenty believed that Akhmedov had plenty of good moments in the ring.
Sitting in attendance on that night, just so happen to be Romero. While he’ll admit that Barrios did struggle with his Russian opponent, he’s quick to point out that it’s unfair to bring up that fight as a way to justify that Davis will win.
“That’s at 140. He struggled but he did drop the dude twice. Barrios is just a big boy.”
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Gervonta Davis vs Mario Barrios Reportedly In The Works For This Summer
By: Hans Themistode
For his past two fights, Gervonta Davis has fought at 130 and 135 pounds. Historically though, the two-division knockout artist has had issues making weight in both divisions. With that said, he should have no problem with the scale for his next contest.
As first reported by Mike Coppinger of The Athletic, Davis will move up to 140 pounds to take on WBA “Regular” titlist Mario Barrios sometime in the summer.
Davis, 26, was last seen in the ring on Halloween night against former multiple division champion Leo Santa Cruz. After five fairly even rounds, Davis did what he always does in the sixth. Meaning, he ended things definitively.
The win for the Baltimore native allowed him to hold onto his own WBA 135 pound title while also nabbing the 130-pound crown away from Santa Cruz.
Davis (24-0, 23 KOs) appeared to drop numerous hints over the past several weeks on his social media account, claiming that he was “going to do something spectacular,” in his next ring outing. Doing so against Barrios, however, won’t come easy.
For the 140 pound secondary titlist, a win over Davis would be the biggest of his career. More than likely, the 25-year-old will walk into their showdown as an underdog. Still, he’ll have several advantages on his side, most notably, a five-inch height and four-inch reach advantage.
Barrios (26-0, 17 KOs) has also shown plenty of power as he’s gone on to stop nine of his last ten opponents, including a sixth-round knockout over Ryan Karl on the undercard of Davis vs Santa Cruz last year.
Currently, there is no news in terms of where their contest could take place but with Davis drawing a huge crowd in Texas for his last ring outing and with Texas Governor Greg Abbott lifting the mask mandate and opening businesses at 100% capacity, Davis vs Barrios could theoretically land there.
