The boxing boom in the Washington area needs to be studied.<\/p>\n
The DMV is thriving, with fighters at the highest level and talented prospects emerging rapidly.<\/p>\n
Yet another on his way out of Barry Hunter\u2019s Headbangers Gym is Deric \u201cScooter\u201d Davis, the 11-0 (10 KOs) welterweight prospect who went the distance for the first time in his last fight when he was taken eight rounds by the 7-5-3 Mexican Moises Garcia Zenteno.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, he faces Spain-based Cuban Carlos Ramos in Cleveland on the bill topped by Abdullah Mason and Albert Bell.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just an era of fighters really that finally just got their recognition,\u201d Davis told BoxingScene.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, most of the people that you see from the area, we all grew up somewhat together, like Lamont [Roach Jnr] and Lamont Snr. They were the people that promoted my pro debut. They put me on the main card in there, their gym, a lot of their guys. The younger sibling, Jordan Roach, I fought in the amateurs with him. Ben Johnson, I fought in the amateurs with him. It\u2019s a lot of fighters that just been in this area that we had to go through and fight each other, inspire each other, get work. But we still were the ones that were going through the tournaments, winning the national championships. It just wasn\u2019t like people was crazy hollering our name. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow that we\u2019re turning pro, we\u2019re all getting a recognition, but we\u2019re all around the same age. We popping out at the same time. It\u2019s amazing. If everybody stays focused and continues to keep doing what they\u2019re doing, a lot of DC fighters have the best talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite only being 23, Davis has already seen talent fall by the wayside and he knows that distractions lie at every turn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just can\u2019t stay focused long enough,\u201d he admits. \u201cSo if all the guys could stay focused, which I believe the ones that are coming up, we can take over boxing as the DC area. Really, this East coast side is really heavy with fighters.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he doesn\u2019t see it exclusively as the Gervonta Davis effect. \u201cTank\u201d is now 31 having turned pro in 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cTank,\u201d Davis says, \u201cwas part of the crew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTank was one of the guys. Tank was one of the people that was coming to the gym and had these big sparring sessions. That\u2019s why you hear about him and Lamont fighting. We grew up all together. This is not a joke. We know each other very well. We know each other\u2019s parents, moms, dads, brothers, sisters. We\u2019ve seen each other multiple occasions everywhere. So now that everybody\u2019s getting recognition on the world stage or starting to get it, it’s like, \u2018Oh, like I’m happy for you, \u2018cause I\u2019ve seen you from being seven years old, being snotty nose and now you\u2019re a grown man, you got facial hair. Like, I know you, bro.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davis has sparred rounds with figureheads Tank and Roach. <\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of them guys were just like the big brother-type mentors giving me game if I lost in the regionals or nationals or something like that,\u201d he added. \u201cLamont Roach was right there. \u2018Cause he was there with Jordan and Ben and his team. He was like, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, bro. This don\u2019t even matter. I\u2019m telling you, this is just going to catapult you to the next stage.’ And he used to give me all these words of affirmation and encouragement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davis believes he has the talent to be considered a world-class fighter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a hundred per cent about this,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m not saying that just to believe in myself. I\u2019m saying this by experience going in the ring with the elites, the world champions and doing my thing. And them telling me at a young age that, \u2018No, no, you’re going to be world champion.\u2019 A lot of fighters, like Floyd [Mayweather] say all the time, a lot of fighters are great in the gym, but on the world stage, they can\u2019t get it done. And that\u2019s where I\u2019m ready. I\u2019m ready for my experience and all my knowledge to translate to the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing the highly regarded Davis had to understand is that he\u2019s developing under the watchful eye of social media where a mistake, an error of judgement or anything less than a stellar display will be condemned.<\/p>\n
Going the distance in his last fight for the first time only proved that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to say certain things, people believe that,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s certain people on social media that believe I\u2019m really not even all that good; I\u2018m just a hype job. Social media is going to have a lot to say, but I know for me, it fuels me to go out the next time to shut that person up. A lot of people always say stuff, well, you\u2019re not going to be able to shut everybody up. That might be true, but I’ll have motivation for every time I’m ready to shut another person up. I’ll have that motivation for you. \u2018Oh, he said this?\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery fight is going to be a new person. Knowing that these guys are talking\u2026 that don’t have no experience in the sport, that\u2019s why I don\u2019t take it too serious. People really get mad and really respond. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t respond to social media people. I just let them have their opinions because again, all publicity is still good publicity. They still talk about you, whether it\u2019s good or bad. So it\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The boxing boom in the Washington area needs to be studied. The DMV is thriving, with fighters at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[369442,64,63,802,1920,6653,56467,85,108675],"class_list":["post-780420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-scooter-davis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-lamont-roach","tag-sports","tag-tank-davis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}