American WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta Davis is now facing a dilemma with his career after blatantly refusing even to converse with Devin Haney’s promoter, currently Matchroom, as they reached out for a potential blockbuster fight between Davis and Haney. Following his April fight against Ryan Garcia, Davis has yet to face any opponent of note in the lightweight division, and a slew of other controversial decisions he and his team have made have now backfired as his career continues to deteriorate due to a lack of competitive fights.
When observing Gervonta Davis’ (29-0, 27 KO’s) resume at lightweight, a peculiar fact comes to the fore; the choice of opponents who all appear to be of Hispanic or Latino origin, and the moving down or up of the same opponents so he retains an advantage. Coupled with the WBA ‘regular’ lightweight belt―a lesser version of the WBA ‘super’ title―he currently holds and the recent achievements of domestic rivals Teofimo Lopez (19-1, 13 KO’s), Shakur Stevenson (21-0, 10 KO’s), and Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KO’s) who all won legitimate world titles in the past year, Davis has now been surpassed by his own rivals due to his aversion to fighting top-rated fighters.
The Baltimore-born fighter’s reputation, which soared following his victory over Ryan Garcia (24-1, 20 KO’s), is now on the brink of collapse after he refused even to entertain a potential offer from Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn, who currently represents Haney, who reached out personally to Davis.
“We’ve already got some big offers in place for [Devin] Haney versus Tank [Gervonta Davis] and I just wanted to see if there was a chance to discuss that fight,” Hearn revealed in an interview with Boxing King Media.
“He said, ‘no’. There are a few other bits he said but he decided not to post those bits.“
Peculiarly, Gervonta Davis himself revealed that he avoided any potential encounter with Devin Haney by posting a phone chat conversation between him and Eddie Hearn before later deleting the same post.
“The reason I approached Gervonta Davis was to make him a massive offer to fight Devin Haney,” Hearn also said.
“But if he’s not interested in the fight or doesn’t want to discuss it, just went back to Bill [Haney] and said, ‘this was his response’.“
In the chat conversation depicted above, Gervonta Davis can be seen deliberately refusing to engage with Eddie Hearn via chat, before Hearn could even address the potential mega-fight between him and recently-crowned WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney.
“I think they’re [Haney’s team] frustrated as well but talk is talk,” Hearn continued. “It would be good to have an honest conversation and talk business about that potential fight.“
While Devin Haney has been remarkably active in the past couple of years―securing a fight with George Kambosos Jr. (21-2, 10 KO’s) in Kambosos’ home country of Australia to become undisputed, and later managing to defeat future Hall of Famer Vasyl Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KO’s) and former WBC super lightweight champion Regis Prograis (29-2, 24 KO’s), both in the same year―Gervonta has yet to fight a legitimate world champion.
Discounting the WBA ‘regular’ belt he holds―of which the ‘super’ version was held by Vasyl Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez, George Kambosos Jr., and Devin Haney in that order, Davis has yet to actually face a world champion at lightweight. Though he did fight Hector Luis Garcia (16-2, 10 KO’s) who had been the WBA world champion at super featherweight, Garcia notably had to move up in weight for his fight, being picked as a preferred opponent over other top lightweights or Devin Haney himself who had been the undisputed lightweight champion at the time.
Gervonta Davis also appears to be a free agent at this moment, according to Hearn, which would allow him even more flexibility in fighting Devin Haney who himself has moonlighted as a free agent for most of his career and is currently associated with Matchroom.
“I believe so,” Hearn stated when asked on whether Davis was currently a free agent.
“I don’t believe he has a promotional deal in place with anybody. I know he’s got his own promotional company but I’ve got some big offers to make on that [Davis vs. Haney] fight but if he doesn’t want to discuss it we’ll wait to maybe later in the year.“
Gervonta Davis later attempted to defend himself for his refusal to fight Devin Haney on Instagram.
“These n***as ain’t no bullies; these n***as are p***y,” Davis asserted on his social media live video broadcast.
“I’ll be the one that shows them, and they broke for real. They really broke too, that’s a fact.“
It is unknown who Davis is specifically referring to in this video as he refused to call the individuals by name, but it is safe to assume he was addressing either Haney and his team which includes father/trainer Bill Haney and promoter Eddie Hearn.
Davis’ assertions that “they are broke” are an assumption drawn from thin air, given there has been no sort of indication any of the aforementioned parties have any financial issues, especially in the case of Devin Haney who recently fought on December 9th.
Gervonta Davis also revealed that he would be speaking to his manager and PBC owner/founder Al Haymon on the situation, though his tone did not reflect whether it was to consider Hearn’s attempt to reach out to him to fight Devin Haney.
“I’ll probably get on the phone with Al [Haymon] too tonight,” Davis said. “We gon’ talk about what these n***as have been talking about.“
Davis, who was talking on his Instagram live in a dark room with not even a candle lit, gave some advice on how Haney and his team could potentially secure a fight with him.
“They want to make the fight happen; tell them n***as they know what to do, they know who to call,” Davis said.
Though Davis did not reveal whom exactly Haney’s team should call, Al Haymon is the likely name that he refused to utter, as it would draw some questions given Haymon―who is officially known to be Davis’ manager―cannot operate as a promoter in his current role according to the Muhammad Ali Act.
