Tank wishes Naoya Inoue good luck… but wants to crush him


Gervonta Davis surprisingly posted a “good luck” message to Naoya Inoue today on X, wishing the unified super bantamweight champion success in his title defense against Ye Joon Kim this Friday at Ariake Arena, Koto- Ku in Tokyo, Japan.

(Credit: Naoka Fakuda)

“Monster” Inoue doesn’t need much luck to defeat his replacement opponent. Kim (21-2-2, 13 KOs) is not in the same league talent-wise, nor on the level of most top-15 contenders. at 122.

Tank’s true intentions?

Fans are still wondering why Team Inoue chose Kim as their replacement after Naoya’s original scheduled opponent, Sam Goodman, suffered a cut and had to pull out of the fight two weeks ago. Indeed, a better fighter than Kim could have been selected. This is pretty sneaky of Gervonta trying to worm his way into Inoue’s good graces so he can fight him.

Many people find Tank rooting for Inoue (28-0, 25 KO) strange because he has wanted to fight him for ages. Naoya, 31, a highly ranked pound-for-pound fighter, has shown no interest in moving up to lightweight to face Gervonta for his WBA belt.

Tank doesn’t need to waste time trying to curry favor with Inoue, hoping that if he’s nice to him he’ll move up to 130 or 135 for a mega-money fight. The Japanese star showed his stripes. He doesn’t even want to move up to 126. If he’s not ready to move up to featherweight to take on the killer sharks in that weight class, he certainly won’t move up even higher to take on a predator like Tank. Davis has no chance of winning.

Look at what an old Nonito Donaire did to Naoya six years ago during their fight on November 7, 2019, fracturing his right orbital bone, cutting him above that eye and breaking his nose. Inoue looked like he had been in a train wreck. He was all messed up. Since then, Naoya has not taken any risks with his career.