Despite recording his 10th straight knockout victory Saturday night, West Baltimore boxer Gervonta “Tank” Davis killed some of the hype surrounding his pay-per-view matchup by missing weight, thereby forfeiting his belt.
Davis, a 22-year-old Upton Boxing Center product who’s risen to pro fame as Floyd Mayweather’s protégé, was set to defend his international junior lightweight title in an undercard matchup preceding Mayweather’s bout with Conor McGregor.
However, on Friday night Davis screwed up by clocking in at 132 pounds, a full two over the maximum weight for his class. Under International Boxing Federation rules, he was still allowed to fight on Saturday, but had to surrender his belt with no option to win it back that evening.
Davis admitted fault on Twitter that night.
I’m young, I’m growing. I had a chance to make the weight I knew I couldn’t make it & that’s that. I will have a belt again
— Gervonta Davis (@Gervontaa) August 25, 2017
The following evening was even less straightforward, though. Firstly, Davis strolled up to the ring wearing an outfit that many observant Twitter users noted made him look a lot like the Cookie Monster.
He was heavily favored to win his matchup against Costa Rican fighter Francisco Fonseca, and he did just that, securing a knockout in the eighth round. However, he taunted his opponent throughout — a bad look, since Fonseca was actually landing some solid hits. Plus, Davis’ final blow, a punch to the back of Fonseca’s head, appeared to be pretty illegal by boxing rules. (Fortunately for him, the ref overlooked it.)
Davis contended afterward that he had actually hit Fonseca hard on his body before the controversial knockout blow, and said the latter hit gave Fonseca an out. “I actually caught him with a body shot before that and he was hurt,” he said, per BoxingScene.com. “So he took advantage of me hitting him in the back of his head and went down.”
His underdog opponent, meanwhile, wants a rematch, he said through a translator.
Davis remains an undefeated champion at 19-0, though he’s no longer an official one by title. Once again, he took to Twitter afterward to express his wish to reclaim that belt.
A lot been going on leading up to the fight and only me and my team knows…I got da job done on a bad night, moving on. I want my belt back
— Gervonta Davis (@Gervontaa) August 27, 2017
There’s talk of Davis jumping up a weight class, anyway. PressBox’s Bill Ordine noted Davis has spoken about doing so before, and that he played with fire while making weight for his January title fight against Jose Pedraza, clocking in at 14 pounds above the limit several weeks beforehand.
For those who were hiding under a rock, Davis’ mentor easily won his overhyped fight against McGregor late Saturday evening. Mayweather, considered to be the greatest professional boxer of his time, improved to a pristine 50-0 record with a knockout of UFC star Conor McGregor, who’d never boxed professionally in his life. The champ promptly announced he was re-retiring afterward.
