Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (20-0, 19 KOs) says he would like to move up to lightweight in 2019 after he unifies the super featherweight division. Davis, 23, currently holds the WBA 130lb title after recently beating Jesus Andres Cuellar by a 3rd round knockout on April 21.

If Davis moves up to lightweight in 2019, there’s going to be pressure for him to fight Vasyl Lomachenko. If Davis doesn’t take the fight with Lomachenko, he’s going to look scared, especially if he’s unified the entire division by the time he moves up. What’s the point in Davis moving up to lightweight if he doesn’t fight Lomachenko for a world title? Davis might as well stay at super featherweight so that the boxing public doesn’t pressure him to fight Lomachenko.

Davis is safe right where he’s at in the 130 lb. weight class, because no one expects him to fight Lomachenko. He’s got a ready-made excuse if he stays at 130. But once Davis moves up to lightweight, he’s going to be expected to fight Lomachehenko, and if he doesn’t do that then he’s going to be seen as scared and ducking him.

Davis seems to be more interested in talking about his issues with his promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr. than he does in discussing winning titles. Davis spends a lot of time complaining about Mayweather for some reason. Their working relationship doesn’t seem to be going too smoothly lately, and it leaves you wondering whether Davis will be able to finish out the remaining 2 years he has on his contract with Mayweather.

“Not this year but next year I can fight four times a year,” Davis said to Fighthype. ”I want to unify too. I believe I can unify at 130 and take them belts and then move up to 135, and start breaking records.”

It’s unclear what records Davis is talking about wanting to break after he moves up to lightweight. At this point, Davis should just hope that he can get the other champions at super featherweight to fight him, because I think there’s a very good chance they won’t bother facing him. The World Boxing Organization super featherweight title is about to be fought over by the Top Rank promoted Christopher Diaz and Masayuki Ito. It would be very surprising if Top Rank lets Diaz fight Davis. WBC champion Miguel Berchelt might beat Davis. Berchelt is a very solid fighter with a lot of power and boxing skills. That’s no easy out for Davis.

It might a mistake if Mayweather lets Davis fight Berchelt. Mayweather has caught a lot of heat for suggesting that he’d be interested in matching Davis against Vasyl Lomachenko, but it might almost as bad if he were to allow the 23-year-old Berchelt. The only safe champion for Davis to fight right now at super featherweight is WBA ‘regular’ champion Alberto Machado. There’s no point in Davis fighting him, because he’s the WBA Super World champion. He gains nothing by fighting the secondary champion Machado. The only fights that make sense for Davis at super featherweight is against Berchelt, who might beat him, and Diaz if the fight can be negotiated. Once the IBF belt is snatched up by the winner of the Tevin Farmer vs. Billy Dib fight, then Davis can go after the winner of that fight. Frankly, I’d be surprised if Davis fights any of the champions at super featherweight in 2018.

“I felt, when I said what I said — I was forced into the first title fight — then there you go,” Davis said. There you go. He talking to another fighter without talking to me and that promotion or management. No comment,” Davis said when asked what grade he’s give Mayweather. ”We don’t have beef. We’re not seeing eye to eye. He traveling, doing him, and I’m doing me. I’m traveling.”

Davis’ comment that he Mayweather is not “seeing eye to eye” makes it look this is untenable situation. Davis needs to focus on fighting and figure out what he’s going to do when his contract with Mayweather expires in two years from now. If Davis still has problems with Mayweather at that time, then he can leave him for another promoter that will be able to give him the attention that he needs to make him happy. Hopefully, this doesn’t become a pattern with Davis, causing him to float from one promoter to another, looking for that magical chemistry that just might not ever exist. Davis should take the fight with Vasyl Lomachenko, because there’s no reason not to take the fight. As a world champion, there’s no reason why Davis shouldn’t be ready to fight another world champion like Lomachenko. Davis can’t call himself a work in process. When you’re a world champion, you’re expected to fight the best in boxing. If Davis doesn’t feel like he can do that, then he should forget about being a champion and just focus on being a contender. Mayweather was willing to fight the best during his career. He wasn’t ducking the best, making excuses for why he couldn’t take the best. When Mayweather was just a little older than Davis at 24, he fought and destroyed Diego Corrales. Mayweather didn’t shy away from that fight. He took it and beat the brakes off Corrales.

“Two years,” Davis said about how much time he has left with his contact with Mayweather. ”I think I’m supposed to get like three fights. I mean, they been moving me right…Mayweather Promotions been moving me right, doing what they supposed to be doing with me. It’s just Floyd. I actually got a relationship with Robert Easter too. Me and Robert — I don’t see…I never pictured me and Robert fighting. I don’t think that would happen,” Davis said.

Davis suggests that he and Mayweather should spar one another, because he thinks that would make things better. I’m not sure how it would improve anything. If the 41-year-old Mayweather dominates Davis in sparring, then how does that make things better? If Davis gets the better of Mayweather, it makes you wonder whether Mayweather took it easy on his fighter because he didn’t want to destroy him mentally. After all, Mayweather must promote the guy for the next 2 years. What good does it do Mayweather to mentally destroy his own fighter by beating him up in sparring? But if Davis did beat Mayweather in sparring, where’s the victory in beating the 41-year-old fighter? It’s not as if Davis would be able to do the same thing to Mayweather if he were 23-years-old and untouchable. It would be a mismatch if Mayweather were 23 still and sparring Davis. It wouldn’t be fair. Mayweather would be looking to fight Lomachenko if he were 23 and putting him in his place. Davis would be small game and not worth fighting.

”Let’s just spar and get it off our chest,” Davis said about sparring Mayweather.

It would be a rotten idea for Davis to spar Mayweather. With all the traveling Mayweather is doing now, I doubt that he’s in any kind of physical shape to spar Davis or anyone at an important level. Instead of sparring Floyd, Davis should be looking to call out the other top fighters in the super featherweight division like Berchelt, Mickey Roman, Christopher Diaz and Tevin Farmer. I’m not sure that Davis could beat Farmer. That’s another guy at super featherweight that would have a very good chance of beating Davis.