Gervonta Davis has built a reputation as one of the new faces of boxing, though something many don’t know is that Davis made his first world title defense in London.
Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis boasts a dominant record of 30-0-1 with 28 knockouts.
Only two men have gone the full twelve rounds with Tank, Isaac Cruz, and Lamont Roach Jr. – Tank’s amateur rival who he fought to a draw with earlier this month.
Their fight was marred with controversy, as Roach claims Tank tried to bite him, and flagged a knockdown that wasn’t correctly scored.
Of Davis’ 31 fights, just one has come outside of the U.S., when Tank fought in the United Kingdom in 2017.
Gervonta Davis dressed up as Michael Jackson before KO’ing fighter in front of his twin brother
Davis entered the ring in London dressed as Michael Jackson to face British fighter Liam Walsh. Tank was coming off the back of his world title win over Jose Pedraza, who he stopped in the seventh round.
On the undercard, Walsh’s twin brother Ryan stopped his opponent to win the British featherweight title, and all eyes soon turned to Liam as he vied to make his brother, fans, and self proud.
Though the then 21-0 Brit dared to be great, Davis owing to his costume did put on a ‘thriller’ of a performance and stopped Liam within three rounds.
Walsh complained that the stoppage was premature, though Tank clearly had the Brit in danger and put him down once before the TKO win.
Tank celebrated with Floyd Mayweather, who entered the ring following Davis’ stellar performance.
Walsh twins had a family rivalry with world title contender ‘The Cinderella Man’
Liam Walsh had just two fights after losing to Tank before hanging up the gloves, the last of which came at the hands of Maxi Hughes.
Hughes currently has a record of 28-7-2, but is known as ‘The Cinderella Man’ due to the resurgence his career has seen, winning the British title after losing five times in his career, and then the IBO world title in his very next fight.
Hughes was on the wrong end of a controversial decision to George Kambosos Jr. which left many outraged and confused as the Aussie picked up his first win since 2021.
Walsh defeated Hughes by unanimous decision in 2019, but Hughes got his revenge years later in 2022, when he defeated Ryan Walsh by unanimous decision in defense of his IBO title.