Mario Barrios is confident that the best available version of Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis will show up for tonight's fight.

The unbeaten San Antonio native is equally confident of scoring his biggest win to date.

“I’m certain we’re going to face the best version of Tank that anyone has seen,” Barrios told krikya360.com of their Showtime Pay-Per-View headliner from State Farm Arena in Atlanta. “It’s going to be a war. I have confidence in my preparation. We’re going to make sure I’m more than ready on fight night.”

Barrios (26-0, 17KOs)—better known as ‘El Azteca’ these days—defends a secondary version of the WBA junior welterweight title which he claimed in a 12-round decision over Batyr Akhmedov in their Sept. 2019 thriller. His first title defense came last Halloween, on the undercard of Davis’ sensational 6th round knockout of Leo Santa Cruz atop a Showtime PPV at Alamodome in San Antonio. Barrios stopped Houston’s Ryan Karl, also inside of six rounds.

Despite having campaigned at this weight for the past four years and enjoying significant size and reach advantages over his opponent, Barrios enters his first career PPV headliner as a betting underdog. Baltimore’s Davis (24-0, 23KOs) is the betting favorite to prevail in his first pro fight above the lightweight limit, having primarily campaigned as a junior lightweight where he is a two-time and reigning unbeaten titlist.

“Tank just jumped up two weight classes. He’s doing things that not a lot of great fighters have done,” Barrios noted. “He [admitted] this isn’t going to be an easy fight for him. He’s going to find that out on June 26.

“He’s going to find out what it’s like to be in the ring with El Azteca.”  

The claim piqued the interest of the session’s A-side attraction.

“What do that mean,” questioned Davis.

Barrios had a response ready on stage, just as he will in the ring tonight.

“It means ‘Warrior,’” Barrios clarified. “You’ll find out.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox