Money in the “Tank”—ONE TO WATCH FOR: GERVONTA DAVIS

Where the drug czars evolve [and],
Thugs are at odds [and],
At each other's throats over the love of foreign cars

—Jigga, “Where I'm From”

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At a ringside seat in attendance to watch his boy Adrien Broner take on John-John Molina in March 2015, sat an evolved prodigy emerged from subterranean Baltimore, fashioned in the look of a generational superstar.

Almost blinded by a familiar glare, Floyd Mayweather wasted no time forming an alliance with a war-machine named “Tank”.

Only the rare can truly recognize the rare, and TMT has a potential legend in Gervonta Davis, one set to explode on the boxing scene in 2017. His arrival comes over 30 years since the birth of “Iron” Mike Tyson; who before known as something harder than steel, was “Kid Dynamite”, and I'll be damned if Tank doesn't have the look and aura of a villainous Mike Tyson.

Though the dark ward of Mayweather is the antithesis of his boss in approach, their ring demeanors mirror an expectation to win convincingly. Whereas Mayweather wanted to put his opponent in a washing machine for 12 rounds, Davis seeks to hang his man out to dry in one.

“I'm the future– none of them want no problems,” said Davis, when I asked the super featherweight destroyer if he views anyone as a threat. “Look at Jason Sosa. One fight and he's a world champion? That's a joke. Line them up, any of them, and I'll beat em. Write that.”

Check.

Unlike “Money”, Davis is economical with words, but possesses the same fierce desire for autonomy. If Al Haymon were to build a team of ‘X-Men', then Tank would be the irascible X-factor Wolverine, ready to claw your ass before running off into the woods. Film study reveals an almost Gothic truth– that of a savant, with an innate savage ability reckoned to be unleashed.

It has been a long time coming. Memories of group homes and foster care quelled by uncles who ushered him into the boxing gym at age 7, providing a blanket of solace for a rage channeled into a roped cage. Over roughly the next decade, Tank compiled an amateur record of 206-15 while collecting 21 national titles.

Today, he is a 21 year-old with a cannon in both fists, evidenced by his 16-0 (15KO's) pro record. Tales of seismic sparring sessions reverberate in boxing's underground elite, with reported bombings of names you know. Davis has been in there with a fast Yuriokis Gamboa, a powerful Lamont Peterson, and then WBC super lightweight champion (and current WBC welterweight king) Danny “Swift” Garcia as he prepared for Zab Judah in April 2013.

He's a fan of welterweight terror Errol Spence, music, and has a love for animals, but does not really watch boxing at all. He needed to “Google” WBO welterweight champion Jesse Vargas to know who Manny Pacquiao faces Saturday in Las Vegas. “When you're great, everybody knows your name. You don't need an introduction,” fired Tank. “They will remember me.”

That's not a trick, but a treat.