Transcription
Javonte "Tank" Davis is one of the best and most complete boxers in the world. In order to be one of the best and most complete, you have to do many things well. In this video, I'll boil it down to his four biggest strengths and his one major weakness. Stick around to the end to find out what rating I will give him between 1 and 5 stars.
Let's get into it.
We're going to start off by breaking down his four biggest strengths. Let's begin with the most important one. Without this very important skill set, he wouldn't be able to use the other three skills I'm about to break down. The skill set I'm referring to is Tank's phenomenal footwork.
The reason Tank has great footwork is due to three reasons.
The first reason Tank has such great footwork is because of his ability to move laterally. Lateral movement is very important in boxing because it creates angles. Angles allow you to put yourself in positions where you can hit and not be hit. They also allow certain punches to get through the guard that wouldn't be able to get through if you weren't in that certain position and throwing from a certain angle. For those three reasons, having great lateral movement is very important.
The next reason Tank has great footwork is because of his ability to get outside foot positioning in open stance fights. What I mean by this is that since Tank leads with his right hand and right foot, which is called the Southpaw stance, when he comes across a fighter who fights in the Orthodox stance—meaning they lead with their left hand and left foot in front—this creates what's called an open stance fight.
In an open stance fight, it is very important to obtain outside foot positioning because that outside foot positioning directly lines your opponent's face with your power hand. If the power hand in your opponent's face is directly in line, that means it's easier to land. This is why it's important to have outside foot positioning in an open stance fight.
The third and final reason Tank has great footwork is because of his frequent use of pivots. I like to define the pivot as a movement that is done by turning your body and feet, which then changes your body positioning and direction. This is a very important move to be good at in boxing. This movement is primarily defensive but can also be used to create offense simultaneously because it is great at getting you out of harm's way and creating new angles. These angles can be used to escape and reset from a bad exchange, or you can use the new angles to initiate offense.
So, for these three reasons, I say Tank has very good footwork. But he's arguably even better at this next skill set I'm about to break down.
The next strength of Tank Davis is his lead hand dominance. I like to define lead hand dominance as a fighter's ability to control space or control his opponent, and most importantly, using his lead hand to defend incoming attacks while also simultaneously setting up his own attacks. That is what I call lead hand dominance, and Tank Davis is very good at this.
The biggest reason I say Tank has very good lead hand dominance is because of his phenomenal use of probes. I like to define probes as throwing somewhat of a soft punch—not with the intention to hurt your opponent, but more so to measure distance, control space, or control your opponent. You can also probe by just sticking your hand out instead of throwing a solid punch, like you're using the long guard.
Tank Davis uses probes and displays lead hand dominance in most of his fights, but his best use of it comes when he's in an open stance fight against another Orthodox opponent. His latest fight with Ryan Garcia was his best showcase of lead hand dominance. The way Tank showed lead hand dominance against Ryan was basically perfect. He completely took away Ryan's best weapon with his lead hand, which was Ryan's lead hook.
The way Tank did this was by sticking his hand out to probe and placing it on Ryan's lead hand, or he would place his hand in the lane of Ryan's lead hand, which completely took away his jab. Tank would also throw probing jabs at Ryan's lead hand to keep it occupied. This was a very smart game plan from Tank and his team, as they knew that's all Ryan had.
By Tank doing these two things, Ryan could barely throw a jab and it made it extremely difficult to land his hook. This probing also helped Tank keep his distance and stay out of the range of Ryan's hook.
Another reason Tank's probes are very good is because he uses them to set up his offense very well. The way he does this is by rolling to then bait you into a lead hand battle for control of that space. Once he sees you stick your hand out to probe with him, he'll then follow through with his power straight right down that lane you opened up. Once you're used to that power straight coming down the middle, he'll then mix in the hook that comes around or the overhand that comes over the top.
So, you know, Tank might look dumb, but he's very smart—smarter than you think. For these reasons, I say Tank has very good lead hand dominance.
Now let's get into his third strength.
The third strength of Tank Davis is his phenomenal counterpunching skills. You see, Tank could counter you all night long, whether it be going forward and being aggressive or going backwards and boxing you from the outside. It all depends on how he feels is the best way to fight you.
There are three main reasons Tank is such a great counterpuncher. The first reason is the most important one, and that is his footwork. This is the most important reason he is such a great counterpuncher because if it wasn't for footwork, he wouldn't be able to put himself at the correct distance to see the punch coming and have enough time to position himself to where he needs to be in order to counter that punch.
The second reason Tank is a really good counterpuncher is because of his speed, power, and reflexes. Tank is deceivingly fast. If you watch his fights, you can see he is able to consistently beat his opponents to the punch and consistently get out of the way from big punches. Then add on the fact that he has that crazy one-punch knockout power in both hands, which makes his counterpunching that much more effective because it increases the risk and consequences that come with getting caught with one. All it takes is one clean punch from Tank to knock you out.
Lastly, I also feel like Tank's reflexes are very underrated because he is very good at seeing punches coming and getting out of the way or reacting accordingly. So that speed and reflexes tie into the third reason he is such a great counterpuncher, and that is because of his defense.
You see, in order to be a great counterpuncher, you have to have good defense because in order to counterpunch, you first have to make the punch miss, and that has to do with defense. Tank has very underrated defense. It seems like all that time with Floyd has paid off because he has developed his defense very well over the years.
The first reason Tank has such great defense is because of something I went over multiple times already, which is his footwork. In boxing, your feet are your first line of defense, so it's important to have great footwork in order to have great defense.
The second reason he has good defense and is such a good counterpuncher is because of his head movement. Tank has very good head movement because he uses all the angles and slots of head movement, which help him tremendously when defending and counterpunching. This allows him to choose from different positions he can put himself in and also allows him to choose from different counterpunching options. If he only used one or two forms of head movement, he would only have one or two forms of counterpunches to use. But since he uses a whole variety of head movement, he has a whole variety of counterpunches.
The last reason I'll say Tank has very good defense is because of his ability to utilize different guards effectively. In boxing, your guard is basically the positioning of your hands. Every guard has its pros and cons. Tank likes to switch between the high guard and the Philly shell.
Tank uses the high guard, which is when you keep your hands up high, usually in the early rounds of a fight when he's reading his opponent or when he's walking him down, trying to apply that pressure. He then likes to switch to the Philly shell, which is basically known as the Mayweather defense, where your lead arm is in a sling protecting your body and your backhand is near your chin or jaw area, ready to catch and block. He uses this when he isn't being as aggressive or when he wants to mainly counter you by letting you throw first. He also uses this guard a lot more against other Southpaws because it's a closed stance fight, and the Philly shell isn't very good—or isn't optimal, I should say—in an open stance fight.
So, for these reasons, I say Tank is a great counterpuncher.
Now that we've gone over Tank's strengths as a fighter, it is now time to go over Tank's weakness as a fighter. If you're enjoying this video so far, make sure to hit that like button to show the algorithm this is a video worth promoting.
In the beginning of the video, I said Tank is a very complete fighter. To be a very complete fighter means there are very few things you do wrong on a consistent basis, and that applies to Tank. I couldn't really find many weaknesses that he does on a consistent basis. Sure, there are things that he did wrong in certain moments from time to time, but there weren't very many things that he did habitually wrong—like constantly, you know what I mean?
There is one thing that I found that he does consistently wrong that is worth breaking down. That one weakness I found in Tank's game is the fact that he tends to overreach a lot when throwing punches. This may seem like I'm nitpicking, but this is actually a very dangerous weakness to have.
You see, the problem with overreaching when you punch is that it leaves you in a very bad position for multiple reasons. The first reason is that when you overreach, you tend to end up off balance. If you are off balance, you're easier to counter because it will take you longer to get back into position to be balanced and be able to move correctly compared to if you were already balanced when you threw your punch.
Another reason being off balance is very bad is that you can't take a punch as well compared to if you were balanced. For example, a punch that you could take easily and wouldn't move you at all when you're balanced could probably drop you when you're off balance. Not necessarily because it hurts you, but because since you're off balance, it takes less force to get you off your feet. That looks bad to the fans and, most importantly, the judges, and it will probably be counted as a knockdown if it's clear that you didn't trip on your opponent or anything.
The second reason it's very bad to overreach is that it leaves you a lot more exposed. You see, when most fighters overreach, they usually abandon their defensive responsibilities, such as dropping their hands or leaving their chin up in the air. If your chin is up in the air, it's way easier to hit. If you get hit on your chin, that's probably not a good thing. If you drop your hands, that leaves you wide open for a counter.
Now that we've gone over Tank's strengths and weaknesses, it is now time for me to give him a rating between one and five stars. Tank is an amazing fighter—definitely one of the best in boxing today. You can make the case he is the best in boxing today, and you can also argue he's a generational talent because of that crazy power combined with the actual boxing skills that he has. Not many fighters like him come around.
So, with all that being said, if I had to give Tank Davis a rating between 1 and 5 stars, I'd give Tank a 5-star rating. Let me know if I'm bugging in the comments. Let me know if you would rate him differently.
The reason I give Tank a 5-star rating is because he is the complete package. He can do it all, and this is exactly what I look for to give a fighter a 5-star rating. You have to be the complete package.
You see, Tank can box, he can brawl with you, he can counterpunch you, he has great defense, he has great IQ, he has speed, he has power—he's a complete package. He can truly do it all. On top of that, I can only find one habitual weakness that he has, which is overreaching.
If you know of any weaknesses Tank Davis has that he does on a consistent basis, let me know in the comments because maybe I just suck at breaking down fighters.
So yeah, Tank is a five-star in my eyes. Many people believe he is the best in the very stacked 135 division, which includes Devin Haney and Shakur Stevenson. I've made breakdowns on them already; they're right here if you're interested in watching one of them.