Gervonta Davis


Gervonta Bryant Davis, also known by his nickname "Tank", is an American professional boxer. He has held the International Boxing Federation super featherweight title in 2017, the World Boxing Association super featherweight title twice between 2018 and 2020, the WBA super lightweight title in 2021, the WBA lightweight title from 2023 to 2026, and regular version from 2019 to 2023.

Early life

Davis was raised in the Sandtown-Winchester community in West Baltimore, one of the most crime-ridden areas of the city. His parents were drug addicts, and were frequently in and out of jail. Davis has one brother. He attended Digital Harbor High School, a local magnet school, but dropped out to focus on his career. He later earned his secondary degree through a GED program.

Amateur career

Davis has been training at Upton Boxing Center since he was five years old. Davis is trained by Calvin Ford who was the inspiration for the character Dennis "Cutty" Wise on the hit HBO television series, The Wire. Davis won the 2012 National Golden Gloves Championship, three straight National Silver Gloves Championships from 2006 to 2008, two National Junior Olympics gold medals, two National Police Athletic League Championships, and two Ringside World Championships. Davis finished his amateur career with a record of 206 wins and 15 losses.

Professional career

Super featherweight

Early career

Davis made his debut at the age of 18 on February 22, 2013, against Desi Williams, who had a professional record of 0 wins and 4 losses, all by stoppage. The fight took place at the D.C. Armory in Washington on the undercard of IBF junior welterweight fight between Lamont Peterson and Kendall Holt. Davis won the bout via first-round knockout. By August 2014, Davis had recorded 8 wins and no losses, with all wins coming inside the distance. Davis was taken the full distance for the first time in October 2014 against veteran 28-year-old Germán Meraz. Davis knocked Meraz down in rounds three and five, and went on to win a unanimous decision, with all three judges scoring the bout 60–52. Nonetheless, Meraz became the 1st fighter to go the full distance against Davis.
On February 20, 2015, at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Davis became the first person to stop Israel Suarez, winning in devastating fashion with a first-round KO.
On May 22, 2015, at The Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Davis scored a technical knockout against Alberto Mora 1 minute 14 seconds into the fight. The normally durable Mora was stopped for the first time in his career. On September 12, 2015, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Showtime as part of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Andre Berto undercard, Davis defeated Recky Dulay in only 94 seconds. On October 30, 2015, at The Venue at UCF in Orlando, Florida, on Bounce TV, Davis defeated veteran 38-years-old former featherweight title holder Cristobal Cruz.
On December 18, 2015, at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on Spike TV, Davis scored a ninth-round KO over Luis Sanchez. On April 1, 2016, at the D.C. Armory on Spike TV, Davis defeated Guillermo Avila by KO in the sixth round. On June 3, 2016, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, as part of a Premier Boxing Champions card, Davis knocked out Mario Antonio Macias with his first punch of the fight, which lasted only 41 seconds.

Davis vs. Pedraza

On November 15, 2016 ESPN announced that Davis would challenge for the IBF super featherweight title against undefeated José Pedraza on January 14, 2017, at the Barclays Center in New York on Showtime. The fight would take place as an undercard fight to the super middleweight world title unification fight between James DeGale and Badou Jack. The IBF granted Pedraza an exemption to fight Davis, as he had a mandatory fight against Liam Walsh looming. Prior to the fight being announced, Mayweather Promotions matchmakers tried to make a deal for Davis to fight titleholder Jason Sosa. In a very competitive fight Davis defeated Pedraza in a seventh-round KO to win the IBF super featherweight title. After the fight, Davis said that he had studied the early career of his promoter and mentor, Floyd Mayweather Jr., in order to stay composed. He said, "I had a lot of experience , but I learned how to keep my composure. Floyd told me to stay calm, and I studied Floyd Mayweather when he was 'Pretty Boy.' My uppercut was my best shot, and it was landing all night. It felt really good to fight the way I did. I could take it and dish it out." Mayweather Jr. himself enthusiastically branded his protégé as the future of boxing. For the fight, Davis earned $75,000 compared to Pedraza, who earned the larger sum of $225,000, in what was his third defense. At the time of stoppage, Davis was ahead 59–55 on all three judges' scorecards.

Davis vs. Walsh

On May 7, 2017, it was announced Davis would travel to London, England for his first title defense. The news came from Frank Warren, promoter of challenger Liam Walsh, who was also ranked number 1 by the IBF. The fight was scheduled to take place on May 20, 2017, and billed as 'Show me the Money'. At the official weigh in on May 19, Davis showed up overweight and was given 2 hours to make weight. His first attempt, although he was naked, he weighed two ounces over. He was then given two hours to attempt to lose the extra weight, although he came back earlier thinking he had lost it but was still over the limit. He eventually met the limit of 130 pounds on his third attempt. Davis stopped Walsh in the third-round to retain his IBF title. After two cagey rounds, which were controlled by Davis, he came out with power punches at the start of the third. Walsh's legs looked to give way and Davis pounced with accurate hooks to the head, eventually dropping Walsh. Walsh beat the count. The fight resumed and Davis went on the attack again, connecting with every shot he threw, then referee Michael Alexander decided stop the fight, even though Walsh wanted to continue. The time of stoppage was 2 minutes and 11 seconds of round three. Many at ringside believed the stoppage was premature, including Walsh, "That was a bad stoppage. He's very fast and very active but it was too quick. He won fair and square but in England sometimes they stop the fight too early." The fight was shown live on Showtime in the U.S. averaging 228,000 viewers and peaking at 253,000 viewers.

Davis vs. Fonseca

According to TMZ Sports in early July 2017, it was reported that Davis would feature in the co-main event of Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor on August 26, 2017, at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada. On July 29, The Ring magazine reported that Davis would likely defend his IBF title against former WBO champion Román Martínez, whose last fight was a KO loss to Vasyl Lomachenko in June 2016. On August 10, Ringtv reported that Davis would instead fight unbeaten prospect Francisco Fonseca, who at the time was ranked number 7 by the IBF. According to some sources, the potential fight with Martínez was dropped due to it being short notice and Martínez would not have had enough time to make the 130-pound limit. Prior to the fight being announced, the IBF had ordered Fonseca to fight their number 3 ranked Billy Dib in a final eliminator, as they were the two highest ranked available. At the weigh in, Fonseca came in at the 130-pound limit. Davis showed up an hour late and came in at 132 pounds, 2 pounds over the weight limit. Davis declined to weigh in after two hours, thus he was stripped of the IBF title. The title was declared vacant, but the title would be still up for grabs if Fonseca secured victory. In what was billed as an easy fight for Davis, he won the fight via KO in round eight, with the ending being controversial. The final punch appeared to be an illegal punch to the back of the head to Fonseca and referee Russell Mora counted him out 39 seconds into the round. After the fight, Davis mocked Fonseca. Fonseca appeared hurt before the knockout blow, which Davis, who was being booed by the crowd, explained to Jim Gray of Showtime in the post fight interview, "I actually caught him with a body shot before that and he was hurt. So he took advantage of me hitting him in the back of his head and went down." With the win, Davis scored his tenth-straight KO victory. Due to Davis winning the fight, the IBF title remained vacant. For the fight, Davis earned a purse of $600,000 compared to the amount $35,000 that Fonseca received.

Davis vs. Cuellar

On November 15, 2017, Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions announced that Davis would be making his in ring return in the first quarter of 2018 alongside stablemate Badou Jack. He also revealed that Davis would fight a high-level opponent. According to Ellerbe, Davis would remain at super featherweight and likely challenge for a world title in 2018. On January 24, 2018, Showtime announced that Davis would next appear on television on the undercard of Broner vs. Vargas on April 21 at the Barclays Center in New York. A day later, Ellerbe stated a deal was close to being reached for Davis to fight former world champion and IBF #3 Billy Dib in what would be an IBF eliminator. A purse bid, which was due to take place on January 25 was postponed to February 6. On February 21, it was reported by ESPN that the fight would not happen. Instead it was stated Davis' likely opponent would be Jesús Cuellar. On March 5, the fight was finalized for the vacant WBA super featherweight title. Cuellar was moving up from featherweight for the fight, he was coming off a loss, and 2 years of inactivity. Prior to the fight, Alberto Machado, the WBA champion at the same weight class, was inexplicably downgraded to 'Regular' champion, and the Davis-Cuellar fight was upgraded to be for Machado's WBA super featherweight title.
In front of 13,964 in attendance, Davis knocked out Cuellar in round three. Davis first knocked down Cuellar in round two courtesy of a left hook to the body and then put him down twice in round three to get the stoppage. Referee Benjy Esteves Jr. stopped the action at 2 minutes 45 seconds into the round. Davis landed 49% of his power shots in the fight. Both boxers earned $350,000 apiece. After the fight, Davis stated he wanted to unify with the winner of Tevin Farmer vs. Billy Dib, which would be contested for the IBF belt, the same belt Davis was stripped of. The bout opened Showtime's broadcast and averaged 460,000 viewers and peaked at 527,000 viewers.