Gervonta Davis Profile

Gervonta Davis is an American professional boxer who is a two-time super featherweight world champion, having held the WBA (Super) title since 2018 and 2017 the IBF title. Davis is ranked as the world’s second-best active super featherweight as of July 2018, by The Ring magazine, the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and Boxrec.

Gervonta Davis Age

Davis was born on November 7, 1994, in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. He is 27 years old as of 2021.

Gervonta Davis Height

Davis stands at a height of ‎5 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in (1.66 m).

Gervonta Davis Weight

Davis weighs 130 lbs (59.09 kg ).

Gervonta Davis Net Worth

The net worth of Gervonta Davis is around $2.5 million as of 2019. His successful boxing career is the primary source of his income, having stepped in the ring twenty times and won all of them.

Gervonta Davis Early Life

Since Davis was five years old, Gervonta Davis has been training at Upton Boxing Center. He is trained by Calvin Ford who was the inspiration for the character Dennis “Cutty” Wise on the hit HBO television series, The Wire. He had a very successful amateur career, winning many national championships.

Quick Facts About Gervonta Davis

Davis won the 2012 National Golden Gloves Championship, from 2006–2008 three straight National Silver Gloves Championships from, two National Junior Olympics gold medals, two National Police Athletic League Championships, and two Ringside World Championships, among others. He finished his illustrious amateur career with an impressive record of 206–15.

Gervonta Davis Education

Gervonta Davis originally is from the Sandtown-Winchester community in West Baltimore, which is one of the most crime-ridden areas of the city. Davis 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.

Gervonta Davis Professional Career

Early fights

At the age of 18 on February 22, 2013, Gervonta Davis made his debut against Desi Williams, who had a professional record of no wins and 4 losses, all by stoppage. The fight took place at the D.C. Armory in Washington on the undercard of the IBF super lightweight fight between Lamont Peterson and Kendall Holt. Davis won the bout in 1st round knockout. Davis had recorded 8 wins and no losses by August 2014, with all wins coming inside the distance.

In October 2014, Davis was taken the six-round distance for the first time against veteran 28-year-old German Meraz (47–31–1, 25 KOs). Davis knocked Meraz down in 3rd and 5th rounds he went on to win a unanimous decision, winning all rounds on the three scorecards (60–52, 60–52, 60–52). Gervonta Davis became the first person to stop Puerto Rico’s Israel Suarez (4–4–2, 1 KO), on February 20, 2015, at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, winning in devastating fashion with a first-round knockout.

Gervonta Davis scored a technical knockout against Alberto Mora (5–3, 1 KO) of Mexico 1 minute, on May 22, 2015, at The Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, 14 seconds into the fight. The normally durable Mora was stopped for the first time in his career. At the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on September 12, 2015, on Showtime as part of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Andre Berto undercard, Davis defeated Recky Dulay (8–1, 5 KOs) of the Philippines in only 94 seconds. Davis defeated former featherweight world titleholder Cristobal Cruz (40–18–4, 24 KOs) of Mexico, on October 30, 2015, at The Venue at UCF in Orlando, Florida on Bounce TV.

Gervonta Davis scored a ninth-round knockout of Mexico’s Luis Sanchez (17–4–1, 5 KOs) on December 18, 2015, at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on Spike TV. Davis defeated Guillermo Avila (16–5, 13 KOs) by knockout in the sixth round on April 1, 2016, at the D.C. Armory on Spike TV. Davis knocked out Mario Antonio Macias (28–18, 14 KOs) of Mexico with his first punch of the fight, which lasted only 41 seconds on June 3, 2016, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida as part of a Premier Boxing Champions card.

IBF Super Featherweight Champion

Gervonta Davis Vs Pedraza

On November 15, 2016, ESPN announced that on January 14, 2017, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Showtime, Gervonta Davis would challenge for the IBF junior lightweight title against undefeated José Pedraza (22–0, 12 KOs). The fight would take place as an undercard fight to the super middleweight world title unification fight between James Degale and Badou Jack. Pedraza was given an exception to fight Davis by the IBF as he had a mandatory fight against British boxer Liam Walsh looming.

Mayweather promotions matchmakers tried to make a deal for Davis to fight titleholder, Jason Sosa, prior to the fight being announced. Gervonta Davis defeated Pedraza in a seventh-round knockout to win the IBF junior lightweight title. Gervonta Davis said after the fight that he had studied the early career of his promoter and mentor, Floyd Mayweather Jr., in order to stay composed. David said, “I had a lot of experience [from the amateur ranks], 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. Davis earned $75,000 for the fight, compared to Pedraza, who earned the lion’s share of $225,000, in what was his third defense. Davis was ahead 59–55 on all three judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage. The bout took place on the undercard of the super middleweight unification fight between James DeGale and Badou Jack and averaged 344,000 viewers.

Gervonta Davis Vs Walsh

It was announced on May 7, 2017, that Gervonta Davis would travel to London, England for his first title defense. The news came from the promoter of challenger Liam Walsh (21–0, 14 KO) by the name Frank Warren, Liam Walsh 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’. On May 19, at the official weigh-in, Davis made weight on his third attempt. Davis’s 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 David came back earlier thinking he had lost it. He eventually met the limit of 130 pounds on his third attempt. In the third round, Davis stopped Walsh to retain his IBF title. After two cagey rounds, which were controlled by Davis, at the start of the third round he came out with power punches. Walsh’s legs looked to give way and Davis pounced with accurate hooks to the head, eventually dropping Walsh.

Walsh beat the count on unsteady legs. Gervonta Davis went on the attack again after the fight resumed and connected with every shot he threw, forcing referee Michael Alexander to stop the fight. The stoppage time was 2 minutes and 11 seconds of round 3. 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. Davis won fair and square but in England sometimes they stop the fight too early.” Davis believed he would have caught Walsh eventually.

Gervonta Davis vs Fonseca

In early July 2017, according to TMZ Sports, it was reported that Gervonta 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. The Ring Magazine reported on July 29, that Davis would likely defend his IBF title against former WBO champion Román ‘Rocky’ Martínez, whose last fight was a knockout loss to Vasyl Lomachenko in June 2016.

Ringtv reported on August 10, that Davis would instead fight unbeaten prospect Francisco Fonseca (19-0-1, 13 KOs), who at the time was ranked number 7 by the IBF. The potential fight with Martínez was dropped due to notice and Martínez would not have had enough time to make the 130-pound limit, according to some sources. The IBF had ordered Fonseca to fight their number 3 ranked Billy Dib (42-4, 24 KOs) in a final eliminator prior to the fight being announced, as they were the two highest ranked available. At the weigh-in, Fonseca came in at the 130-pound limit.

Davis came an hour late and at 132 pounds, 2 pounds over the weight limit. After two hours, Davis declined to weigh in forcing the IBF to strip him of the 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 knockout in round 8, with a controversial ending. Davis’ 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.

Davis mocked Fonseca after the fight. Before the knockout blow, Fonseca appeared hurt, 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, it was Davis’ 10th straight knockout victory. The IBF title remained vacant, due to Davis winning the fight. Davis earned a purse of $600,000 for the fight, compared to the amount of $35,000 that Fonseca received.

WBA (super) Super Featherweight Champion

Gervonta Davis Vs Cuellar

On November 15, 2017 CEO of Mayweather Promotions, Leonard Ellerbe, announced that Davis would be making his in-ring return in the first quarter of 2018 alongside stablemate Badou Jack. Leonard Ellerbe also revealed that Davis would fight a high-level opponent. According to Mayweather Promotions CEO, Davis would remain at super featherweight and likely challenge for a world title in 2018. Showtime announced on January 24, 2018, that Davis would next appear on television on the undercard of Broner vs. Vargas on April 21 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Ellerbe stated a day later that, a deal was close to being reached for Davis to fight Australian former world champion and IBF #3 Billy Dib (43-4, 24 KOs, 2 NC) in what would be an IBF eliminator. A purse bid, which was due to take place on January 25 was postponed to February 6. It was reported by ESPN on February 21, that the fight would not happen. Instead, it was stated Davis’s likely opponent would be former featherweight champion Jesús Cuellar (28-2, 21 KOs).

The fight was finalized for the vacant WBA ‘Regular’ super featherweight title on March 5. Albert Machado, the ‘Super’ Champion at the same weight class, was inexplicably downgraded to “Regular’ Champion prior to the fight and the Davis-Cuellar fight was upgraded to be for Machado’s WBA (Super) super featherweight title. Gervonta Davis knocked out Cuellar in round 3 in front of 13,964 in attendance. He first knocked down Cuellar in round 2 courtesy of a left hook to the body and then put him down twice in round 3 to get the stoppage. Benjy Esteves Jr. the referee stopped the action at the 2:45 mark.

Davis landed 49% of his power shots in the fight. After the fight, Both boxers earned $350,000 apiece. Davis stated that 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 off. The bout opened Showtime’s broadcast and averaged 460,000 viewers and peaked at 527,000 viewers.

Gervonta Davis vs Mares

Davis announced in November 2018, that he would defend his WBA title in February 2019 against former three-weight world champion Abner Mares (31-3-1, 15 KOs) in Southern California. In August 2018The fight was first teased by Mayweather via Social Media, with no mention of a date or venue. The fight would see Mares moving up from featherweight, having lost his last fight in June 2018 against Léo Santa Cruz.

When the fight was announced, there was a lot of talk of Mares being ‘thrown to the wolves’ and that he had no real chance against Davis. Mares hit back at critics explaining this was fully his decision to move up in weight and test himself. The fight was confirmed on December 14, to take place on February 9, 2019, at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego on Showtime. The venue was changed a week later to Dignity Health Sports Park, in Carson, California, formerly known as StubHub Center.

An arrest warrant was issued on September 19, 2017, for Davis, who was being accused of first-degree aggravated assault. According to Maryland court records, the alleged incident took place on August 1, 2017, but did not indicate what happened and who was involved. An amount of $100,000 unsecured bond was posted for Davis’ release. On October 19 Davis was due to appear in court. The charge was later changed to misdemeanor second-degree assault, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 10 years or a fine of $2,500.

At the court, Anthony Wheeler, a childhood friend, complained that Davis had punched him on the side of the head with a ‘gloved fist’. Wheeler then stated he was diagnosed with a concussion in the hospital. The incident took place at the Upton Boxing Center in West Baltimore. It was said that on November 29, 2017, Davis would stand trial. In court, the charges were dropped by Wheeler.

The Baltimore Sun stated that both Davis and Wheeler embraced and walked out of the courtroom together. Davis was arrested in Washington D.C. on September 14, 2018. According to a police report, Davis and another man started a fistfight. Punches were being landed around the upper body. It was said that both men tried to flee before the police arrived.