Gervonta Davis is the same age Floyd Mayweather was when his mentor changed his life forever. WBN compares the two talented fighters at 29.
Davis is a two-weight world champion by default despite some around him claiming he’s a three-weight ruler. ‘Tank’ is a three-time world titleholder with two reigns at 130 and his current one at 135.
Despite holding the WBA lightweight title currently, Davis never wanted the belt. When Devin Haney dropped the strap, the World Boxing Association handed it to him as the ‘regular’ champion. At the time, Davis made it clear he didn’t want to win a championship that way.
Nonetheless, Davis would only be a two-time super featherweight champion and ruling in one weight class without it. Compare that to Mayweather, who, just after his 29th birthday, unified the welterweight division against Zab Judah to become a four-weight world champion.
At 29-0 with 27-0 knockouts, there’s no doubt that Davis is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet. However, those comparisons to Mayweather no longer hold up. Davis is competing in an era when inactivity is killing careers. It’s unlikely he’ll ever get anywhere near Mayweather’s 50-0 perfect benchmark.
When Mayweather defeated Judah to move to 36-0 with 24 KOs, his legacy was already assured as he headed towards a collision with Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. A victory in that match-up would elevate Mayweather to the number one P4P spot and crown him as the new Pay Per View king.
At present, Davis is far from landing that spot until he faces the best in his division and beyond.
It’s a well-documented story of how Mayweather moved to control his own destiny at the same age Davis is now. He bought himself from his contract with Bob Arum for $750,000 and signed a new deal with manager Al Haymon.
At the time, Mayweather said: “Floyd Mayweather has never been struggling. Let’s clean that up right now. Me and Al Haymon joined forces. He saw not just a fighter but a person. He’s very articulate, and Al’s smart inside and out of the ring. I had done good numbers before Al Haymon, but when we came together, we had a game plan, and then everything came to be.”
Mayweather dropped his ‘Pretty Boy’ persona in favor of ‘Money’ as a symbol of controlling his own destiny. Davis, who hasn’t fought in a year and spent time in prison, is still under a cloud after public slants against Mayweather that were quickly deleted in his customary way.
A fight with Frank Martin is lined up for the summer, but once again, it won’t be enough to push Davis any higher up the P4P ladder. Fans are becoming disillusioned with the fact Davis hasn’t fought any of the top guys at 135, with Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, and Shakur Stevenson getting tired of waiting.
Of the ‘Super Six’ WBN labeled in 2021, Davis has faced one in Ryan Garcia. The other two, Vasiliy Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr., will face off for the vacant IBF title next month. Davis facing Martin puts an instant block on the potential unification as Davis stays off course to ever take control as the best fighter on the planet.
Mayweather took that position in 2007 and didn’t look back. It only took a semi-retirement to knock him off his perch when Manny Pacquiao took over in 2010. Even then, Mayweather returned with a half-a-billion-dollar Showtime contract that placed him back as the top player in the sport.
In contrast, Davis is far from being in the mix with Naoya Inoue, Terence Crawford, Oleksandr Usyk, and Canelo as this generation’s top stars. He may earn better paychecks than all his rivals, but until he starts knocking them off one by one, the Baltimore man will have to be content with being an in-house star under one banner, like Mayweather was during his time with Top Rank.
It’s time for Gervonta Davis to step up and take control of his legacy.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay. Learn more and read all articles from the experienced boxing writer.
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