MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Instant Reaction: Gervonta Davis-Leo Santa Cruz

Episode Date: November 1, 2020

Brian Campbell is back to give his instant reaction to Gervonta Davis vs. Leo Santa Cruz. How big was Gervonta's win? What is next for him? Brian breaks it all down here. --------------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gervonta Tank Davis brought the heat and a pay-per-view star was born on Saturday night. It's instant analysis time. Morning Combat, your boy, BBC, the big beige one, Brian Campbell coming at you. One half, of course, of the MK duo every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when Morning Combat hits you with the live show on YouTube. This is your IA edition edition fresh off the showtime pay-per-view halloween night gervonta davis leo santa cruz for two world titles in two different divisions at 130 pounds and while i certainly want you to pause real quick and make sure you have

like the video subscribed and continue to help us make mk i don't know um be that thing in your life you need you want you just can't avoid you just can't you just can't quit right right uh that's what you want out of this show i think gervonta davis just gave you a reason to keep your eyes pinned on him whichever direction he goes next however much each of that direction costs. Because when you get to the pay-per-view level, the expectations are higher for you to deliver. And you want to talk about an entertaining, scary, brutal, savage, spectacular finish. Gervonta Davis does that, improving to 24-0 with 23 knockouts,

a right uppercut from hell or was it a left at this point i can't even remember because what i saw was one of the best boxers in the world on a pound for pound level leo santa cruz put up a great fight go toe to toe at times with tank but then get hit with the wrong punch the wrong time set up beautifully in that corner in round six referee Rafael Ramos no need to count when they get knocked cold face under the turnbuckle and the ring ropes you want to talk about a pay-per-view level fight a big time fight you typically don't see this type of Marquez Pacquiao for vicious ending but you do see it when you got guys that are going for it,

that are trying to win, trying to dare to be great, trying to entertain, trying to use the, what the platform of pay-per-view offers you. It can be a little bit different in boxing. We're so used to big time pay-per-views having all hype and, and then not delivering.

It's what made that two fight glove can Canelo rivalry. So special. That's a pay-per-view that you're, you're not paying for a Mayweather defensive output. You're paying for punching and real stakes and two guys going for it. Well, we got that for six rounds here. And in a situation where I think it is one of those rising tide moments that lifts all the ships, everybody wins. Gervonta Davis lives up to all that hype that we're talking about,

shows you why you need to follow him as the de facto Mike Tyson of the lower weight classes the big knockout puncher who has the celebrity backing proved in this fight one of the biggest things against him can you box on the level that you can punch yes and then came out there when we saw a gutsy ballsy effort and defeat from Leo Santa santa cruz uh already a four division champion didn't need this fight wanted it wanted the payday wanted the potential stardom that comes with it wanted the chance at five titles in five weight classes which just a select group of five legends have done before him he didn't get that but leo gave it all on this night

and so when you see a star fighter lose in this vicious of a fashion uh roberto duran and uh and and tommy hearns in one in one round type of fashion um it's startling but it shows you that they went for it it shows you that they that you know you look at this fight six hard rounds le Leo down 48, 47 on all three cards. A lot of people on the internet had him ahead very slightly at that point. He came to win. He was the longer and taller fighter, but he was the fighter risking it all moving up and wait after just one fight at one 30 in which he won a title against Miguel Flores

last year and saying, bring on the hardest puncher in the sport. Only he came to try to win it he picked his moments and then he got sent to the basement floor of hell so he kind of wins in default here uh because he showed up so well tank wins floyd wins showtime pay-per-view wins it really was a good night for boxing all together considering uh they pumped you know a little over 11 000 fans into the alamo dome social distancing set it up but it felt good to have that crowd back and certainly you know you want to find a great crowd you go to a fight city like san antonio you go to a fight state like

texas that mexican-american backbone of fans i was surprised to see tank davis get as big of an ovation as he did in potential Leo Santa Cruz territory. But like I mentioned, all things considered, Tank passed every single test we could have had for him. The big one was the weigh-in on Friday. He had a history of underpreparing, of just barely making it on the scales, needing a second and third chance sometimes. And when he passed that test on Friday, you really had to ask yourself, uh, do the odds

makers who are putting him at really what looked like an astronomical level of, of favoritism, you know, like a plus, uh, you know, Leo was a plus seven 50 underdog at some points tank. Well, I thought he was going to end up being a minus 1000 fair, which is absurd for a pay-per-view fight that you want to pay for that. You think the other guy has an avenue to compete and by the way Leo Santa Cruz took that avenue we all thought he had in the best case scenario and again a lot of people thought he was winning the fight at this point so this is why it was the perfect night for Tank because he blows away Santa Cruz in round two

and it's obvious that it's big man against small man, he's not going to get the credit. If he goes 12 rounds and when it's a decision, but it's not that exciting or, or he's doing just enough, he's not going to get a ton of credit. Instead, he had the challenge that he needed when you're stopping every single opponent. And the only guy that takes you the distance as a guy in a six round fight six years ago. Rightfully, people are going to say, can you adapt? Can you make adjustments? Can you do all those things?

Tank had to do that in this fight against Leo, which is why this was the perfect night for him. That adjustment that Tank made a little bit in round three, but rounds four and five, going to the body like a madman, you could see the power slowly taking away from leo santa cruz's output and this is what santa cruz does he gets he stays in and wins fights by either overwhelming you he's not a big puncher but it'll overwhelm you with with uh flurries but if you can take it if you can play chess with him he could make adjustments and he made great adjustments in this one to be able to land his power shots. He, he rolled the dice at times of what punches he thought he could take, but still hang in there. But Tank was better than we thought straight up. And that's why I take you back to Friday.

The moment he made weight with not ease, but without trouble, you started to ask yourself, how good is a, is a Tank Davis with everything going in his favor? like if you get a dialed in take it and yes it should be automatic but here's a guy came from nowhere in baltimore got anointed very early by promoter floyd mayweather as the next big thing and you know come into money and championships early he's had plenty of public missteps not just the outside the ring stuff, the, the arrests for assault, domestic assault, some, some not cool stuff, obviously right there, but in the ring, he lost the title at one 30 on the scales on the Mayweather McGregor co-main event. He's, you know, he sleep walked to a certain degree in his last fight against your Yorkers Gamboa, that fight went into the 12th round Gamboa was trying to survive, but you also had an appointment in Gamboa who essentially tore a ligament in his leg in the second round and and he didn't get him out of

there so there were certainly some questions of for Leo to be competitive in this fight would it have to be a diminished or an unfocused Tank Davis I think the best thing again for boxing for Showtime for for Mayweather for Team Gerv davis wherever you stand in terms of fanship here is that we hyped up a young a young potential star with menacing power and he freaking delivered and those are the moments you want to see i don't know who could beat a tank davis this wired in this this ready 15 wing camp in las vegas moving it out of baltimore uh it seems like he's listening to floyd and look that that relationship has potential to be volatile i mean floyd and tank had a somewhat public sort of falling out two years ago that ended up getting resolved but

there's a lot of people who in the build-up to here saying is you know is floyd speaking too much for him is there too much floyd on the camera you know is how is another Floyd fighter right like we thought Broner was supposed to be the next Floyd it didn't work out how are we going to keep creating these next Floyds and there's too much pressure and they're just not good enough well Tank is different and I think the coolest part is that there's really not a lot of comparisons to Floyd that make a lot of sense Tank Tanks of Southpaw, Floyd's Orthodox. Floyd was, yes, aggressive in the smaller weight classes and was a puncher at times, but he's a defensive genius

and a guy who just takes a snapshot, lets the computer roll, and just disarms you and takes you out of the game. Tanks, the complete opposite. And he got on the pay-per-view three years earlier than Floyd did. Floyd was 28 when he already had the critical reception. He was acclaimed. He was pound for pound king. But at 28, he lured Arturo Gatti into his first pay-per-view in 2005.

And I feel like Tank's a bigger star now than Floyd was at that point. And he's three years younger. I mean, I don't know how you identify it, if it's just the power or the look with the tattoos or the like legit street cred that he has, but there's something special, an extra it factor to his brand where, you know, big time celebrities love him,

know him, want to be around him. Check the social numbers, not to pat Luke Thomas and myself on the back, but, you know, go back and watch the weigh-in stream on YouTube that Showtime put out, the press conference stream. around him check the the social numbers uh not to pat luke thomas and myself on the back but you know go back and watch the weigh-in stream on youtube that showtime put out the press conference stream you'll see inflated numbers of viewership there compared to other big name fighters like tanks for real but he's different than floyd and it's it's what's weird is floyd entered that pay-per-view debut already maybe the best fighter in the world but was looking to get money

in recognition tank kind of already had that had that he needed the opposite he needed the the critical respect and i think this is the type of win where santa cruz was coming in there for division champion just one loss to carl frampton in a pick'em fight a classic that went the distance and then to see leo adjust and win that rematch with frampton at featherweight you know he's like a quasi undefeated fighter coming in here and tank adjusted first and then blew him away you're in the pound for pound top 10 you are we've been waiting for tank to step up against legit competition sometimes not his fault he had the fight schedule with abner morris uh

early in 2019 and matt morris fell out the last minute i mean he's had these late replacements or these mandatory situations or maybe these situations where they're trying to give him uh the type of bowling pins he can knock down easy but even though he's moving down in weight for this one against leo i don't think that you could you there's, you can't just take a broad brush and say, you know, big guy beat the little guy. As I, as I mentioned earlier,

this was a tough matchup. Leo came in with a chin. He came in there with the ability to adjust. I mean, he was very creative in how he was working the body early to corner Gervonta. And then even after Davis made some adjustments, you still saw Leo picking his spots and pushing the pace.

There were moments that fourth round specifically where this was, this was a fun war. This was a fun little high speed chess action fight. So Leo brought that out of Gervonta. This didn't come down to power. It came down to, in a lot of ways, Gervonta smarts to set up that power shot and how he was going to the body,

how he was just really look like the only intersection there might be, you know, the ability to box, but Floyd's certainly a way better pure boxer than Gervonta, but that's where the comparison to Floyd ends. I mean, look, you always compare pay-per-view numbers and gate receipts and purses and all that. And nobody's touching for many reasons the money man floyd i mean his longevity all that great stuff but tanks in his own lane and you know we can call him the mike tyson of the small weight classes because it's an easy casual fan understanding of who he might be but he showed you tonight that there's real pound for pound sophistication and this is the good news

right now for boxing coming off of this. The good news is that Tank is willing to defend both titles, 135 or 130, depending on the biggest matchup. I don't mind when he comes out cocky afterwards saying, I'm the money man. I'm the pay-per-view star. You guys got to come to me. I don't mind that because he is of the younger guys. But the good news for boxing is that the five guys who are part of we have next, the five most promising young boxers to build the future around right now is this group. Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez Jr., Ryan Garcia, Tank Davis, and Shakur Stevenson. And all five are right there around the lightweight division.

Shakur hasn't fully moved up but you got teo fimo there you got right i mean they all want to fight each other they're all for the most part uh separate promoters separate networks so that's the heart that's the bad news the good news is boxing's future is all close together and davis just took kind of first place in that grouping from a commercial standpoint tonight um he's the first to headline a pay-per-view out of that group and uh it certainly felt like this would do decent numbers towards whatever their expectations were but to deliver like he did he might be the best fighter right now of that group and he's only 25 uh the bad news would be that this is boxing so it's not easy but we did

have showtime sports uh president steven espinoza on morning combat last week and he said look you know we're here we're in play to make these big fights that everybody wants with the people on the other side of the street you know we'd love to do lopez more specifically we really want to do ryan garcia and think we can pull that fight off even though garcia fights for golden boy promotions and fights on his own um you know you're gonna have to get smart people together in a room to make that work but it's in the right time frame in terms of boxing politics right now where from the fury wilder two fights you're seeing different networks and different promoters at least be willing if it makes sense so

tink just threw down the gauntlet said of this group i'm the biggest star i already had the the gate receipts and and you know i nearly sold out la atlanta baltimore now i got the cable ratings well now i got the pay-per-view and i just delivered the knockout of the year and i probably just entered the pound for pound so what he needs at this point is you know willingness by these fighters to want it because they're going to have to force the hand of their promoter or they're going to have to get their star quickly up to a level where a two network pay-per-view type of setup would work and would make a lot of sense i think the best news though is that we hyped something of boxing and it came through you know we hyped lopez lomachenko was slow going in the beginning it came through with big entertainment and in some ways the right guy won for the

the overall storyline and the health the younger brighter prospect lopez shocked the world in that sense with how thorough he won a fight that was wide and got close at the end we hyped up this one as potentially a competitive fight but also another one of those get ready boxing's gonna hatch the next golden egg and they did and he delivered and uh that doesn't always happen and it's great to see when it does because now there are so many more fights uh not just this group of young guys against one another but certainly uh whether they move up and down and wait, take on current champions, take on aging names.

You want to see the boxing food chain go in a circle. As much as we love Floyd, we don't want to be sitting here, you know, clamoring for Floyd to come back against a YouTuber or a kickboxer or a Habib or a Connor, as much as maybe for one night we could get ourselves excited about that potential we want future big stars to show up and prove that they're future big stars and to do that you got to fight the best and so as long as tank doesn't look for another leo because he's gotten

criticized his biggest wins in some cases have have smaller guys moving up. I justified this one because Leo's that great. And I think he showed that for as long as he hung in there. It's time for Tank at the very least now, though, to use a really lame statement, to pick on somebody his own size, to go out there and do his best to get the best, the highest rated lightweight who has a marketing that he can bring to the table, whatever's the best next option to go after it and to go right through it. Because there's a, there's a special mix of talent here that again, I don't think Floyd had, you know, Floyd, again, the better boxer,

no one's going to mess with Floyd's IQ and defense, but Floyd didn't have jump off the paper fight ending power like that. And this kid does. And you hope Davis has met his point of maturity is his ceiling of, of sort of the wildness that comes for a lot of young athletes, because if he can keep himself clean outside the ring and they can eat clean and stay in shape and not have any weight mishaps, you're not going to be able to find somebody around these weight classes that you can favor over him. And that's even considering that great group of guys I mentioned. And that's a, the bold statement when you're talking about the tail FEMA went in there

and picked apart at the smaller pound for pound King and Lomachenko, right. And Haney looks like he doesn't have a flaw. And, you know, Ryan Garcia is, is certainly way better than we thought he was and i think oh by the way shaker might end up being the best shaker stevenson fighter of that entire group there's a floyd element to what he does in terms of just out boxing and out slicking you and picking you apart but nobody has it as well-rounded and as potent in one package as tank davis does so tonight's a monster success in that regard. Whether you took our advice, you paid for it, you watched down.

I think if you did, you got your money's worth. And if you watched it via illegal means, then we'll find you. But I think you also saw a guy that you need to see more of. So huge victory tonight. We'll see where Gervonta ends up in that pound for pound discussion moving forward. But as much as he was fighting Leo tonight, let's be honest, Gervonta was fighting himself and he won.

That's a big win. He won on the scales. He won in the fulfill these outsized expectations department. And he won in gaining the critical respect that he hadn't had. He'd had the commercial respect. He'd had the, Hey, we can make a sizzle reel with fun. Knockout respect. He hadn't had the critical respect that he hadn't had. He'd had the commercial respect. He'd had the, hey, we can make a sizzle reel with fun knockout respect. He hadn't had the critical one, and this was a big one for him.

Congratulations, Durante Tank Davis, Showtime, Mayweather, and boxing. We didn't shoot ourselves in the foot today. And a star who had already been born certainly climbed to that top shelf and shined bright. See what we got here. This is what it's all about. Let's make some big fights. Can't wait. I am Brian Campbell, your boy, BBC, one half of the Morning Combat Duo.

Be sure to check us out every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern is your live show. Obviously, we're hitting you with bonus content throughout the week, from Luke's breakdowns to his live chat to all the fun little guests we have but monday's the meat show that's the full reaction we're going to go deep on this fight as well as anderson silva's ufc farewell as well as big wins from niwa inouye alexander usik it was a big fight weekend we'll break that all down monday morning 11 a.m eastern be there on the mk like the video subscribe buy the damn merch if you will at store.show.com i want to see you on have you seen this shit our fan submissions outfitted in our finest mk clothing to you but until then

okay it's your boy bc oh check out our room service diaries too. Over in Jersey City, Luke and I, we drank OE 40s out of a plastic bottle. Actually, there were 42s. Bro, 42 ounces of really gross malt shit. But we did that for you because we love you. All right? So why don't you reciprocate already, okay? You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. All right. I got two more words for you. MK, we out.