Gervonta Davis Proved His Power Could Carry Up

One of the big questions headed into Saturday night’s PPV in Atlanta was, whether two division world champ Gervonta Davis’ punching power would move up with him to Jr. Welterweight. Well, we and his opponent, Mario Barrios, both found out that it can.

Davis outfought the previously unbeaten 140 lb. WBA “lesser” title holder Barrios, knocking him down three times on his way to an 11th round TKO at the State Farm Arena on Showtime,

WHAT. A. FIGHT. #DavisBarrios pic.twitter.com/TdsbhNOkHL

— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) June 27, 2021

Davis was looking to “load up” on big punches almost from the beginning of the scheduled 12 rounder. This, while looking to score his 24th knockout in 25 fights. However, Barrios being some four inches taller and appearing to re-hydrate Friday night and all day Saturday to around 150+ lb. or more for the main event, was able to take a lot of his punches through the first seven rounds without much problem.

That is, until round eight.

That’s when the Baltimore native scored a hard overhand right to the side of Barrios’ head and put him down for the first time in his career. Barrios was clearly shaken and within 30 seconds the southpaw Davis caught him with a left to the nose and chin dropping him, again.

To his credit, Barrios not only survived but actually threw punches back at the shorter Davis, who was swinging wildly and seemed to almost punch himself out at the end of the round eight.

Davis was not as active in the ninth round and Barrios appeared to win that one scoring to the body and with an occasional right.

The fighters traded big-time blows, including Barrios landing straight right hands and Davis responding with hard lefts, as they stood toe-to-toe a couple of different times in the tenth.

Finally in the 11th round, Davis landed a wicked left to the midsection that doubled Barrios over and onto his knees. He just beat the count at 9 and once again, was on wobbly legs. Davis, then landed a couple of punches, including a clubbing left hand and referee Thomas Taylor waved the fight off.

So, despite having fought only one fight at 135 lb. (an October KO of Leo Santa Cruz) and now one fight at 140 lb., Davis was able to show big time punching power in both.

He told Showtime’s Jim Gray in the ring after the fight that his mind isn’t made up on if he’ll stay at Jr. Welterweight,

 “I went up in two weight classes and I got the job done. I knew if I could catch him, I know for sure I’d crack him. When I caught him, it showed.”

Indeed it did.

Now, for the next test and we’ll see at what weight?