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NEW YORK — Gervonta Davis arrived at his seat on the dais at 5:28 p.m. ET on Tuesday afternoon, almost four and half hours after a press conference to officially announce his fight with Lamont Roach was initially scheduled to begin.
Davis didn’t even acknowledge that he was ridiculously late for the event, let alone apologize for what went way beyond his trademark tardiness. Waiting all afternoon for Davis didn’t rattle Roach, who also laughed off his former amateur rival’s promise to knock him out in the ninth round of their WBA lightweight title fight March 1 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, also the site of their press conference.
“This is his sh*t,” Roach told Uncrowned. “This [is Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis] Promotions. He’s four hours late. If that’s what he wants to be recognized as, who cares? It’s a little disrespectful, but it is what it is.
“It’s unprofessional, but at the end of the day he probably can [get away with it] because he’s a superstar. What you expect?”
We’ve come to expect exactly this type of unprofessionalism from Davis, who can be engaging, funny and thoughtful once he actually opens up and offers opinions on all things boxing. The powerful southpaw from Baltimore has been enabled by hangers-on and tolerated by those who handle his business because, no matter how much bad behavior most of them begrudgingly endure, Davis is unquestionably one of the two faces of boxing in the United States, along with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
The hard-hitting Davis delivers devastating knockouts, packs arenas throughout the U.S. and generally generates enough pay-per-view revenue to make him well worth the trouble. The fact that he hasn’t suffered any lasting consequences from several legal issues has only encouraged the 30-year-old Davis to act as if the boxing world will revolve around him for far longer than what’s left of his physical prime.
Unfortunately for those that demand Davis pursue more imposing opponents than Roach, what transpired Tuesday was a microcosm of his highly profitable but incomplete career. The right fights for one of boxing’s biggest stars — minus such exceptions as knockouts of rivals Ryan Garcia and Rolando “Rolly” Romero — apparently will happen entirely too late, if at all.
In Davis’ defense, he wanted to finally fight Ukrainian legend Vasiliy Lomachenko next. As Uncrowned exclusively reported in November, Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs), the IBF lightweight champion, declined to face Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) on November 2 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, even after their representatives seemingly agreed to a deal.
Nevertheless, even Davis couldn’t explain Tuesday how he settled on Roach once Lomachenko made it clear he wouldn’t face him next.
“I don’t even remember how it went, bro,” Davis told a group of reporters following his press conference with Roach. “I swear I don’t. I don’t really know how it went, bro. I don’t know how it went.”
Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs) is a capable boxer, but Davis opened as a 16-1 favorite in part because the WBA super featherweight champion has moved up from the 130-pound division to challenge Davis in a 135-pound championship match. They’re familiar with one another from two amateur bouts Davis narrowly won in 2011 and countless sparring sessions in and around Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
The 29-year-old Roach, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, also upset Dominican southpaw Hector Luis Garcia by split decision in November 2023 to win his WBA belt. Ten months earlier, Davis defeated Garcia (16-2, 10 KOs, 3 NC) by ninth-round technical knockout.
Davis didn’t mention their recent common opponent as part of his rationale for selecting Roach.
A defiant Davis did, however, let it be known he isn’t the least bit interested in a lightweight title unification fight with Shakur Stevenson, who owns the WBC 135-pound crown. Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) is scheduled to defend his title against another unbeaten American, Austin’s Floyd Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs), on the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 undercard Feb. 22 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
They’re on almost the same schedule, yet Davis scoffed at the thought of facing Stevenson later in 2025.
“For what? Like, who has Shakur [fought]?” an incredulous Davis asked. “What has Shakur done? What has he done in this sport? He hasn’t done nothing. The young one is looking more better than him. Keyshawn [Davis] looking way more better than [Stevenson]. Y’all keep screaming [Stevenson’s] name. He haven’t done nothing. Keyshawn haven’t even done nothing. What the f*ck is y’all keep saying his name for?”
Stevenson didn’t help his cause with the extremely cautious approach he took in his dull decision defeat of Dominican southpaw Edwin De Los Santos in November 2023. The three-division champion’s unremarkable points victory over Germany’s Artem Harutyunyan on July 6 at Prudential Center in Stevenson’s hometown of Newark, New Jersey, wasn’t especially inspiring, either.
The 27-year-old Stevenson’s supporters insist the defensive southpaw would rise to the occasion and give Davis difficulty no other opponent could.
The savvy Davis realizes, though, that a rematch with the polarizing Garcia would do much bigger business than a tactical battle versus Stevenson. His seventh-round knockout of Garcia in April 2023 produced $22.8 million in ticket sales at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and over 1 million pay-per-view buys in the United States.
Davis mentioned the suspended Garcia on Tuesday as one of the two opponents he plans to face after Roach in 2025, before he calls it a career. Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC) is scheduled to battle Japanese kickboxer Rukiya Anpo in a boxing exhibition December 30 in Tokyo, but his one-year suspension for failing a performance-enhancing drug test after his majority decision victory over Devin Haney on April 20 will end in four and a half months.
Garcia has criticized Davis for making him drop down to a catchweight of 136 pounds and having a rehydration restriction in their contracts. Davis doesn’t want to move all the way up to the junior welterweight limit of 140 pounds for what is undoubtedly the most marketable bout he could embrace.
Regardless, retirement talk was new for a disinterested Davis, who has grown weary of the mental and physical rigors of training, several sources informed Uncrowned. Davis also expressed frustration regarding his group of potential opponents.
“This sh*t is trash,” Davis said, “garbage.”
Becoming boxing’s undisputed lightweight champion clearly isn’t a goal nearly 12 years into his professional career, either.
“I don’t care about belts,” Davis said. “I don’t care about that. I care about getting my money and getting out of there.”
As long as Davis continues to make plenty of money for those who handle his business, we probably shouldn’t expect him to take a more punctual approach to attending press conferences or embracing many of the fights the boxing world wants.
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