During a press conference a few months before his March 1 fight against Lamont Roach Jr., WBA lightweight champion and pound-for-pound great Gervonta “Tank” Davis said to reporters, “After next year, I’m out of it. Yeah, out of this sport.”
“S***’s trash,” Davis added of boxing, which he has been training in ever since he was a little kid. “This s*** is trash, garbage. Fed up. I’m fed up with the whole s***. I just want to be able to make money and stay out the way, that’s it. I want to be living without being seen.”
These comments caught the boxing community by surprise. While Davis didn’t speak that much more about this in the months leading up to him fighting Roach, his performance in the ring that night (which resulted in a majority draw) looked uninspired, and like somebody who had become burnt out with the sport he had once so adored.
IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire
And debate regarding Tank’s potential retirement was reignited after he made a September 26 X post (which is now deleted) that read, “Boxing definitely did a turn..it went from this side to that side 😎..and this s*** has no loyalty so why would I care, I move accordingly BOXING IS DEAD😎👌”.
When a fan responded, “Please retire then.” Tank offered a reply that read, “I am 😊..in 8 weeks“.
Tank’s head coach is Calvin Ford, who was interviewed by Fight Hub TV on October 5. At one point, Ford was asked about Tank’s recent retirement comments.
“Tank has been talking this way, and I understand why he’s talking that way. You know, he’s been doing it for so long. If you work a regular job and you’ve been doing it for so long… It gets bored. So this fight might wake him up, you know what I’m saying?” Ford said of Davis.
Ford later added, “After the Roach fight, [Davis] said, ‘I don’t think I’m retiring.’ We still fighting now! He was getting ready for the Roach rematch. So he’s still fighting! So just let him do him.”
“He needs a change, that’s all it is. And maybe Jake [Paul] will be that change,” Ford continued. “When fighters say they’re chilling, they’re retired, what do they end up doing? [Fighting] is in they blood, man. But I just think he wants to spend some time with his family, and enjoy life.”
Ford is referring to Tank’s upcoming fight against Jake Paul, which takes place in Miami, Florida, on November 14. Despite what Ford might say, this exhibition against Paul could definitely be the final bout of Tank’s career.
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