Gervonta Davis has indicated on the social media platform X that he is retiring after his November 13 fight with Jake Paul.
Davis, who has complained during the promotion for his upcoming exhibition bout about what he perceives as boxing’s tendency to turn on stars who fall from grace, wrote on social media, “Boxing definitely did a turn..it went from this side to that side [sunglasses emoji]..and this shit has no loyalty so why would I care, I move accordingly [sunglasses emoji; OK emoji] BOXING IS DEAD.”
An X user then quote-posted Davis: “Please retire then.”
“I am,” Davis responded, with a cheery emoji. “In 8 weeks.”
Davis fights in a fan-friendly style, racking up 28 knockouts among his 30 professional wins against a single draw in his last fight with Lamont Roach. Despite being one of the sport’s biggest attractions, important fights against higher profile names like Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, Keyshawn Davis, and Shakur Stevenson have failed to come to fruition.
In March, Roach entered a fight with Davis as a huge underdog but ended up giving “Tank” the toughest fight of his career. Many felt Davis was lucky to escape with a majority draw, especially considering that he took a knee in the ninth round and darted to his corner to have his face wiped without suffering a penalty.
All this has made it difficult to ascertain Davis’ ceiling as a fighter: he appears to be a top talent in the sport but has never come close to fighting sufficiently stern opposition to justify placement near the pinnacle of a pound-for-pound list. His defining fight remains his seventh-round stoppage of Ryan Garcia in 2023.
A Stevenson fight represents a true test of boxer vs. puncher, and by far the best opponent of Davis’ career so far. Yet nobody has shown less interest in that fight than “Tank” himself. Even if boxers are notoriously fickle when it comes to retirement – “I’m officially retiring from the sport of boxing,” Stevenson himself wrote on X during a low point in his career, only to double back on the all-but-forgotten post – Davis seems prepared to let this exhibition against Paul prove the dying image of his boxing endeavors, and to let the limits of his talent remain a question.
