LAS VEGAS -- Frank Martin provided future opponents with a kind-of, sort-of blueprint for how to defeat Gervonta Davis. Martin, of course, couldnt' execute it fully and wound up on his back Saturday as referee Harvey Dock tolled the 10-count over him before a crowd of 13,249 who came out to watch the WBA lightweight title fight in the 100th boxing card at the MGM Grand Garden. Davis scored a vicious eighth-round knockout at 1:29 witih one of best-looking left hands you'll ever see.
Martin boxed well at times and his work left a very visible welt under Davis' left eye. He tied Davis up when he got inside and, frankly, did as well against the southpaw from Baltimore as anyone Davis had ever met. Even with all of that, though, it wasn't enough; it wasn't remotely close to enough.
Even as Martin was scoring early, there was a palpable sense in the arena that Davis was about to do something big.
That moment came a little over a minute into the eighth, and, as it turns out, final round.
Davis has the kind of rare, fight-changing power that overcomes mistakes in difficult situations and turns a good fighter into a legend. Davis just decided to pour on the pressure and walk Martin down, showing disdain for whatever Martin was throwing back and it changed the fight.
Now, maybe Davis had something of an information advantage since he'd sparred a few times with Martin over the last few years. He knew from those moments that while Martin could box, his shots didn't carry much juice.
Still, it's easy to say one can simply walk through a world-class professional boxer's shots. And Davis still had to land the punches that put Martin away. As he's done so often, he did it with style.
Davis landed a hard right hand followed by a left that left rocked Martin. He was defenseless and largely motionless in the corner with one of the game's best finishers smelling blood. Davis ripped a left hook that put Martin down for the count.
It was a brilliant performance for a star-level fighter, even if Martin wasn't the guy. The one guy who has the speed and boxing skills to compete with Davis on relatively even terms is Shakur Stevenson. Stevenson, though, would likely be on the bicycle all night and it wouldn't be an aesthetically pleasing fight.
"You know how that would go," Davis said, grinning impishly. "Everyone in this room knows how that would go."
Esther Lin/PBC
Gervonta Davis shows off the wounds of battle.
Vasiliy Lomachenko has been mentioned as a potential future opponent, and Davis said he was into it.
"I want to fight them all," he said.
Lomachenko would make it a fight, and he'd get inside and give it a go, but he is on the back nine of a brilliant career and may not have enough left in the tank to make it a great battle. Teofimo Lopez is in his prime and that would be a wild fight, but he's already a class above Davis and planning a move to 147.
You know a guy is good when you have to struggle to find someone who could compete with him and that's where we're at with Davis at this point. He does a lot of things very well and that power is definitely real.
Martin said he was caught by a punch he didn't see coming and said it will take an alert fighter to solve the Davis riddle.
"You have to be able to box and watch all the shots because he's got shots you don't see," Martin said. "You have to be alert in there."
Martin said Davis is great at figuring out patterns and he fell into one that cost him.
"I got on the ropes too much," Martin said. "I was looking for my shots and I was chilling on the ropes too much."
And that's a bad place to be against Davis for a variety of reason. There aren't a lot of avenues of escape for one and, two, Martin was falling into a predictable pattern. That doesn't work with a shrewd fighter like Davis.
He's vastly smarter than he's given credit for and while his power is clearly a 15 on a 1-to-10 scale, his ring IQ is second to none. That part of his game isn't talked about nearly enough, but was seriously impressive again on Saturday.
"I had to get him into the right range," Davis said. "I was finding my range [as the fight moved along]. He had a decent jab and was moving a lot. I just had to break him down."
He was ahead 67-66 on all cards and had the momentum, but he ended it in the way that the fans who paid to see it wanted. The crowd was roaring for him every time he feinted, let alone when he landed.
And he proved to any skeptics that he's the real deal.
Esther Lin/PBC
Gervonta Davis cracks Frank Martin with a left hand.