‘UPPERCUT FROM HELL”: Davis demolishes Santa Cruz for potential KO of the Year

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

All it took was one punch for Gervonta “Tank” Davis to end the fight in dramatic fashion.

Just when everybody thought that the four-division world champion Leo “El Terremoto” Santa Cruz was gaining ground on Davis in their highly-anticipated mega-fight, it only took one vicious uppercut to end it all.

As Davis was looking to pin Santa Cruz in the ropes, the Mexican fighter started to engage in a slugfest and as he threw a sweeping right straight, the young superstar from Baltimore found an opening to unleash his heavy counter leftie uppercut to put him to sleep.

It was Santa Cruz who was forcing the issue in the earlier rounds as he kept the pressure on Davis by throwing punches as many punches as he could which proved to be the edge for him in the fight.

Technically, it was the kind of fight that always favors Santa Cruz by keeping his distance well and using his reach advantage to connect on more punches against his opponent.

Unfortunately, Davis was able to close the distance and force Santa Cruz into a brawl at the start of the fifth round which completely shifted the tempo of the fight.

Both fighters began to light it up in the sixth round as they started to exchange combinations with Santa Cruz working on his signature three-straight combo while Davis targeting the body.

The fight progress went scarier for Santa Cruz after eating heavy punches from Davis which also became the biggest nightmare of his career.

With 2:40 left in the sixth, Davis successfully cut the distance then pinned Santa Cruz in the ropes and in a matter of seconds, waited for the perfect timing to unload a strong left uppercut counter that can contend for KO of the Year honors.

The win for Davis made him the current WBA Junior Lightweight title and the WBA Super featherweight title and is still undefeated with an incredible 24 wins, no losses, and 23 knockouts resume.