As fight fans know, two big and respected names in the sport have recently spoken out about wanting to see a fight between Naoya Inoue and Gervonta Davis, namely Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza and Floyd “Money” Mayweather. Plenty of other people have expressed their shock and surprise at this fight – between a current 122-pounder and a big 135-pounder who boxed up to 140 – and have even been mentioned.
It seems unreasonable, unrealistic and just plain unfair and too big a jump in weight for Inoue (Mayweather suggests the bout could and should indeed happen at a catch weight). Now Top Rank boss Bob Arum, co-promoter of The Monster, has given his opinion on this infamous fight. Speaking to Fight Hub TV, Arum said the fight “makes no sense at all.”
“Inoue started at 108 and now he’s worked his way up to 122,” Arum said. “He’s a great star in Japan. Virtually nobody in Japan knows who Tank Davis is. Now that he’s undersized at 122, why would Inoue be talking about fighting a guy who’s essentially a 140-pounder? It makes absolutely no sense, I mean – no sense! I mean, would Inoue have a chance with Shakur? [Stevenson]? Probably not, Shakur’s way too big for him. You know, let’s not get carried away. I mean, Terence Crawford showed last week what a great fighter he is, but you wouldn’t want to pair him with Tyson Fury.”
Pairing Crawford, a welterweight, with Fury, who is of course a heavyweight, might be a stretch for Arum, but you see where he’s coming from, you see what he means. The sport has weight classes for a reason, and Inoue vs. Tank weighing over 126 pounds (126 is a weight Tank can’t handle anymore and might be too big a step up for Inoue anyway) is just insane.
When asked if the fight would sell and that since Tank was about the same size as Inoue, that wasn’t out of the question, Arum still had none of it.
“Yes, I know him [Tank] It’s sold in the US, but it’s not good for Inoue to rush and fight guys that are so much bigger than him,” Arum said. “I do not care [about] The stature of Tank, Tank is… that’s why they call him Tank. He’s the bigger man. In comparison, Inoue looked like a shrimp [Stephen] Fulton. I was there and I was like, “Oh my god, this is going to be really tough.” He handled Fulton easily, let’s see what he does with the Filipino (Marlon Tapales). And then there are people at 126 who will put him to the test. Let’s see how he does there. You have to be stupid to stick him in with a 140 pounder! And the Japanese are not stupid.”
Many people often disagree with what Arum says, but not here. Arum is 100 percent correct on this issue. Let’s hope this silly talk about Inoue’s fight against Tank stops. Let’s face it, it should never have started.
Boxing News » Naoya Inoue vs. Gervonta Davis “Makes no sense, I mean – no sense!” Says Arum
