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Tonight at the Barclays Center, 22-year-old Baltimore fighter Gervonta “Tank” Davis took a big first step to fulfilling some high hopes for his career, knocking out Jose Pedraza to win his first world title.
Davis (17-0, 16 KO) found himself matched up with an aggressive Pedraza (22-1, 12 KO), who was defending the IBF super featherweight title, and changed his style to perhaps try to get into Davis’ head, to catch him off guard.
But it didn’t really work. Pedraza was competitive in the first five rounds, but Davis’ speed and power advantages were quite clear very early on. It was a sixth round body shot that seemed to really take the will away from Pedraza, though, as the Puerto Rican never quite recovered from the blow.
In the seventh, Davis found Pedraza with a big hook, putting him down hard. Pedraza did get up, but the fight was understandably stopped there, as Pedraza was deemed in no condition to continue.