This week, boxing columnist Michael Copinger reported that WBA lightweight champion Gwotta "The Tank" Davis is on the verge of returning, and he will return to the ring in late May or early June, and has now reached an agreement with Frank Martin, nicknamed "The Ghost," to broadcast the bout live on PPV.
With the big battle finalized, the outside world has ended speculation about who Davis will play next.
The 29-year-old, who is now ranked No. 2 in the WBA, is a formidable fighter with 18 professional wins and 12 knockouts, and his fight with Davis is more like a power vs. skill encounter.
There is some suspense in the Davis vs Martin clashes, but it remains to be seen if they can create standout PPV ratings. Davis' last fight with Ryan Garcia generated 1.2 million PPV ratings, making him the top professional boxing player in 2023, far surpassing the Errol Spence vs. Terrence Crawford and Carneiro Alvarez vs. Gimmel Charlo fights in the same year.
If Davis wants to continue to generate respectable PPV ratings, he should face Devin Haney and Shakul Stevenson, who may not be able to make a breakthrough with Martin.
It's unclear how much honorarium Davis will get for the fight with Martin? If you don't get an eight-figure appearance fee, it will be considered a "failure", you must know that British promoter Eddie Hearn offered Davis $25 million some time ago, hoping that he can fight Connor Bene.
Initially, it was Davis who called out Benn's name, but under the high honorarium, he turned to face Martin, which is somewhat unbelievable, maybe Davis is not sure to continue to upgrade to face Benn, or maybe he didn't want to do it at all, just put a smoke bomb,
Davis hasn't made another appearance since knocking out Garcia last April for a variety of reasons. Davis made a lot of money against Garcia, and some felt that he had spoiled him with the colorful bills, and now it seems that Davis clearly wants to bounce back.
Davis's PBC is seen as risky by live-streaming his fight with Martin on a paid basis, and given that there is no guarantee of outstanding ratings, it will be interesting to see how many PPVs will eventually be sold, as well as a test of how high Davis's market influence really is.
Martin, who was scheduled to fight Stevenson for the vacant WBC lightweight title last November, made a new contract request and opted out of the fight after being denied, which eventually led to a napping battle between Stevenson and Edwin Delos Santos.
Martin's foundation and technique are good, and he won the All-American Golden Glove Championship in his amateur years, but in the last match against German Artem Haruyuni, Martin's performance was not satisfactory, and in the first half of the competition, he was controlled by Haruyuni, but fortunately he fought back in the second half of the race, and finally narrowly defeated his opponent to win.
In addition to beating Haruyuni, Martin has also beaten fighters such as Michel Rivera and Romero Duno, but unfortunately these fighters are not as good as Vasily Lomachenko, William Zepeda, Raymond Muratala and others, so how many brushes does Martin have? It needs to be verified by playing against Davis.
Davis can't take Martin lightly, after all, the other party is not a parallel import, with the strength of an upset, Davis is still careful, according to the comprehensive index of the two, Davis is undoubtedly more sure of winning, it depends on how he wins? If he does lose to Martin, Davis' career will definitely take a cliff.