Regardless of the next fight Gervonta Davis will have in the ring, it will not take place until he has his day in court.
The unbeaten former two-time 130-pound titlist and current secondary lightweight title claimant is due to appear in a Miami-Dade County courtroom on March 3, for an arraignment hearing stemming from his recent arrest following a domestic violence incident which took place in the greater Miami area during Super Bowl week. Davis was charged with one count of alleged Simple Battery Domestic Violence after a now-viral cell phone video taken captured the boxer forcibly grabbing Andretta “Dretta” Smothers, the mother of their daughter while the two were in attendance for a charity basketball game on Saturday, February 1.
Davis turned himself in to local authorities at Coral Gables Police on Tuesday, and soon thereafter transported to processed at Guilford Knight Correctional Center. The 25-year old southpaw boxer appeared on court on Wednesday, where he was formally notified of the charges and ordered to next appear in court on March 3. Additionally, he has been issued a Stay Away Order as part of a pre-trial condition prohibiting contact of any kind with the alleged victim.
Video footage of the incident surfaced on the eve of Super Bowl LIV. Davis publicly acknowledged the incident through social media, noting that he was aggressive but at the same time claiming to have “never once hit her.. yeah, I was aggressive and told her come on… that’s the mother of my child I would never hurt her other than that Happy New Years.. January was trassshhhhh.”
Davis has since deactivated his verified accounts on Instagram and Twitter.
According to a report from TMZ Sports, local authorities are allegedly in possession of surveillance footage which picks up the two backstage. An unnamed police office told TMZ Sports that the new footage allegedly shows Davis “pulling back his arm and then forward towards the victim, which is consistent with a strike to the face where the victim sustained injuries to her lip and left jaw.”
The report also claims that the alleged victim cooperated with authorities, complete with a signed statement detailing the alleged attack and photos taken by police.
Davis fights under the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) banner and is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, neither of whom responded to inquiries from BoxingScene.com seeking comment.
The alleged incident grinds Davis’ in-ring progress to a halt. The unbeaten Baltimore native managed three knockout wins in a 2019 campaign, all of which served as Showtime-televised main events.
A pair of early round knockouts versus Hugo Ruiz and Ricardo Nuñez served as the tail end of his second reign as a 130-pound titlist before moving up in weight for a 12th round stoppage of former featherweight titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa to win a secondary lightweight title last December in his second hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.
Rumors have swirled of Davis next facing four-division tilist Leo Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19KOs) in a bout that was teased as a Pay-Per-View headliner. A targeted timeframe of May was offered, with The Athletic’s Lance Pugmire reporting that the bout was destined to land at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, although such details were never formally announced nor confirmed by PBC or Mayweather Promotions.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox