Great night of fights! Davis and Lomachenko shine in late knockout victories

Lubin and Martinez also stop competitive foes

One of the key questions surrounding Gervonta “Tank” Davis’ fight with Mario Barrios was would his concussive power go up the scale with him? The answer: A resounding yes.

Davis successfully moved up two weight classes from junior lightweight to junior welterweight and dropped Mario Barrios three times en route to an 11th-round knockout victory in an exciting fight that headlined a Showtime PPV card on Saturday night at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

With the win — before an announced sellout crowd of 16,570 — Davis, the reigning WBA junior lightweight titlist and WBA secondary lightweight beltholder, took Barrios’ WBA “regular” junior welterweight belt to give him versions of titles in three weight classes, although Josh Taylor is the recognized undisputed junior welterweight champion.

Belts aside, it was a significant victory for Davis, whose last fight in October was at the junior lightweight limit of 130 pounds in his knockout of the year contender of Leo Santa Cruz. For Barrios, Davis moved up 10 pounds and didn’t miss a beat.

Davis (25-0, 24 KOs), 26, of Baltimore, dropped Barrios (26-1, 17 KOs), 26, of San Antonio, twice in the eighth round and again in the 11th round for an impressive win with mentor and promoter Floyd Mayweather at ringside giving him instructions from the floor between rounds.

For the first six rounds, it was anybody’s fight with neither man landing many punches. Davis, according to CompuBox, landed just 11 total punches in the first four rounds. After the sixth round, two judges had it 57-57 and one had Davis up 58-56. But then Davis took over and began to break Barrios down.

“I made it tough. I definitely could have made it easier but I went up two weight classes and I got the job done,” Davis said. “I hit him with some clean shots, but I’m the type of fighter that wants to catch you with clean shots. I don’t just want to throw any type of shot. The shots I was throwing were missing, but eventually I caught up with him.”

Barrios came into the fight having never been knocked down but Davis dropped him twice in the eighth round and cut him under his left eye. Davis, a southpaw, landed a sweeping right hook for the first knockdown and seconds later connected with a straight left hand for the second one.

In the 11th round, Davis unleashed a flush left hand to Barrios’ body that crumpled him to all fours. Barrios got to his feet by the count of six but as soon as the fight resumed Davis nailed him with a left hand to the chin that sent Barrios stiff-legged into the ropes and then wobbling sideways, prompting referee Thomas Taylor to wave off the fight at 2 minutes, 13 seconds.

“Of course I wanted to continue. I got up for a reason,” Barrios said. “I told everybody that I was going to show the Aztec warrior that I am. I want to give everything I have every time I step in a ring.”

Davis immediately climbed a corner post and did a back flip from the top to celebrate in a wild scene.

“I knew for sure if I catch him, I’m crackin’. So, I caught him, and it showed,” Davis said. “My coach (Calvin Ford) was telling me to go to a jab style but I’m a southpaw so they know I’m going to that jab side. So I would try and bait him in. I faked like I was going left, and I threw my right. And my hook over top, and that’s where I caught him. I knew he was hurt. I just had to catch him at the right time.”

Barrios was humble in defeat.

“I’ve never been a hater. Congrats to ‘Tank’,” Barrios said. “He came here and did his thing. It was nothing short of an exciting fight and that’s exactly what both of us predicted. He was the better man tonight, but I’ll definitely be back.

“‘Tank’ is explosive. He caught me slipping and it’s boxing. At the end of the day, one punch can change the fight. That’s exactly what I felt happened. Congrats to him.”

As few punches as Davis landed in the early rounds, he really came on down the stretch. Overall, he landed 96 of 296 (32 percent), including 82 of 182 power shots (45 percent). Barrios landed 93 of 394 (24 percent).

“Floyd came to me (before the 11th round) and was honest and said I was down,” said Davis, who was actually ahead on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage (97-91, 96-92, 96-92). “So, he said, ‘Show me that you’re great.’ And you know how we do it in the doghouse, baby!”

Mayweather was impressed by his protégé.

“He has the potential to be one of the greatest ever,” Mayweather said. “When I first met ‘Tank’ when he was 14 or 15 years old, I told him I’d make him a world champion and that you’ll be one of the best someday. I’m proud of him.”

Lubin knocks out Rosario

In the back-and-forth co-feature, Erickson Lubin knocked out former unified titlist Jeison Rosario in the sixth round of a very tough WBC junior middleweight title eliminator.

It was the biggest win of Lubin’s career and put him in position for a mandatory title shot against the winner of the undisputed title fight between Jermell Charlo — who handed Lubin his lone loss by first-round knockout in a 2017 title shot — and Brian Castano, who meet for all four belts on July 17.

Lubin (24-1, 17 KOs), 25, a southpaw from Orlando, Florida, looked like he might end the fight in a dominant third round, which he closed by landing a right hook that sent Rosario wobbling to his corner. However, Rosario (20-3-1, 14 KOs), 26, of the Dominican Republic, quickly recovered and had Lubin in trouble in the fourth round.

But in the sixth round, Lubin scored two knockdowns, finishing him with a right to the body and a left to the head that dropped Rosario to his knees. He struggled to his feet but could not beat the count as referee Jerry Cantu waved it off at 1 minute, 42 seconds.

“I just followed the game plan,” said Lubin, who has won six fights in a row under trainer Kevin Cunningham since linking up with him after the loss to Charlo. “I would just go back to my corner after each round and coach Cunningham and my team would just say, ‘Stick to the jab. Stay consistent with your jab.’ I’m way faster than him and I knew he had good power and he was trying to counter me. So I would fade him out and use my jab consistently.

“I started to hurt him in the body as soon as the first round started. I started with the body and I saw him grunt. So, I was able to hurt him to the body. I just wanted to distract him with the jab, then go downstairs and I was able to get him out. I knew even if he got up after the knockdown that the fight was over. I know I’m a great finisher and I knew I was going to get him out of there as soon as I saw him drop.”

Now, Lubin wants another title shot.

“I want everyone at 154 pounds,” he said. “I’m No. 1 in the WBC but I chose to fight Rosario. I don’t duck anybody. I want to say that I fought everyone in my division when I win the world title.”

Rosario lost his second fight in a row by knockout. He is coming off losing his two belts in a three-belt unification fight with Charlo by eight-round knockout in September.

“Right now, I feel so bad,” Rosario said. “There is no lesson to be learned yet, everything is so raw still. I lost again, and it’s so frustrating. I was convinced I was going to win. The fight started to turn in the second round. I was just trying to keep up and listen to my corner. Lubin is a great fighter. He deserved to win. I hope he enjoys his victory.”

Also on the card:

—Carlos Adames (20-1, 16 KOs), 27, of the Dominican Republic, knocked out Alexis Salazar (23-4, 9 KOs), 25, of Norwalk, California, in the third round of a middleweight bout.

Not much happened in the first two rounds but in the third round, after referee Jim Korb docked two points from Adames for excessive holding, he nailed Salazar with a clean left hand on the chin. Salazar, whose 15-fight winning streak ended, never saw the shot and although he made it to his feet he was in no condition to go on and Korb stopped it at 2 minutes, 59 seconds.

“I was in control the entire fight, and that’s what reduced him to turning around at times,” Adames said. “I was working with the jab to the body at first so that was working, and then I came with the left hook. I did my job and followed my strategy from A to Z and was able to succeed the way I wanted to.”

—In a WBA junior welterweight title eliminator, Batyr Akhmedov (9-1, 8 KOs), 30, a Russian southpaw, stopped former junior lightweight titlist Argenis Mendez (25-7-3, 12 KOs), 34, of the Dominican Republic when Mendez retired on his stool after the eighth round due a right hand injury.

“The fight went as planned,” said Akhmedov, who dominated and overcame the first cut of his career over his left eye after an accidental head butt in the second round. “We were expecting a tough fight like that. I've been out of the ring for a long time, so I needed to get those rounds in. My plan is to fight for the world title next. We knew he would be uncomfortable to fight and tricky. He was head butting and elbowing me. It was good experience for me.”

Mendez said he hurt his hand in the second or third round.

“My knuckles were broken and I couldn’t throw a punch anymore,” Mendez said. “I tried to keep fighting from the fourth round on, but to no avail. It was useless.”

Loma batters Nakatani; Lopez rematch?

The reason former pound-for-pound king Vasiliy Lomachenko hand-picked lightweight contender Masayoshi Nakatani, besides wanting to face a quality opponent, was simple. He wanted for people to compare his performance against Nakatani to the one Teofimo Lopez had against him.

The result was a one-sided ninth-round knockout victory for Lomachenko in the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, and it was a far more dominant performance than the one his rival Lopez authored against the Nakatani 2019.

It was also a much better showing for Lomachenko than he had in October, when Lopez outpointed Lomachenko in a big upset to unify their lightweight world titles.

I wrote about Lomachenko’s one-sided beat down of Nakatani and the prospect of a rematch with Lopez for The Ring magazine website. Please read that story here: https://www.ringtv.com/623497-vasiliy-lomachenko-with-eye-on-teofimo-rematch-in-top-form-while-downing-masayoshi-nakatani/

In the co-feature, middleweight Janibek Alimkhanuly, a 2016 Olympian, notched the biggest win of his career in an impressive and totally one-sided eighth-round knockout of former secondary world titlist Rob Brant. The 28-year-old Alimkhanuly, an unbeaten southpaw based in Oxnard, California, dominated the fight from the outset, mainly with his powerful left hand. I wrote about the bout and the entire undercard for The Ring magazine website. Please read that story here: https://www.ringtv.com/623471-alimkhanuly-handles-brant-with-ease-on-loma-card/

Martinez stops Cordova in rumble

Julio Cesar Martinez retained the WBC flyweight title for the third time with an action-packed sixth-round knockout of Mexican countryman and friend and sparring partner Joel Cordova at the Arena Alcade in Guadalajara, Mexico.

It was the main event of the first card under a new deal between Matchroom Boxing, Canelo Promotions and DAZN that will see at least four cards taking place in Mexico.

Martinez (18-1, 14 KOs), 26, returned from a hand injury that forced him out of a February defense during fight week and was in fine form taking out Cordova (12-5-2, 3 KOs), 26, who was stepping up in competition.

Cordova acquitted himself well, giving Martinez a good fight for a few rounds. But Martinez rocked him with a left hook with two minutes left in the fifth round that bloodied his mouth and then he dropped Cordova to his rear end against the ropes with another hook in the sixth round.

Cordova beat the count, but Martinez pounced and was battering him when referee Frank Garza stepped in at 1 minute.

“We’re aiming to stay at flyweight and unify the titles,” Martinez said. “I am so happy my family and my fans are here in Mexico for me and to support me this evening. He was as tough as I expected, a great fighter and we’re all here to win, so all respect to him. Now I want to unify next.”

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said he will attempt to get him a unification bout.

“I think this kid is a superstar,” he said. “(Manager) Eddy Reynoso is behind him, we’re behind him, this kid is going all the way. I think he should unify first at flyweight whether that’s Sunny Edwards, Artem Dalakian, Junto Nakatani, and then up to super flyweight and then up to Bantamweight over time. A fight with (unified super flyweight champion) Juan Francisco Estrada is a super fight in Mexico, and we’ll see Martinez back out in September.”

In the co-feature, Daniel Matellon (12-0-2, 6 KOs), 33, a Cuba native fighting out of Panama, made the first defense of his interim junior flyweight title with a unanimous decision against former strawweight world titlist Jose Argumedo (24-5-1 15 KOs), 32, of Mexico. The judges had it 117-111, 115-113 and 115-113.

Davis-Barrios and Lubin-Rosario photos: Ryan Hafey/PBC; Lomachenko-Nakatani photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Martinez-Cordova photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing