Gervonta Davis retirement seems worryingly close after deflating Roach Jr draw

Nothing lasts forever. Forever is a lie. All we have is what's in between hello and goodbye.

Gervonta Davis is a superstar – the biggest name in American boxing right now.

On Saturday night his stardom saved him after he retained his WBA lightweight title with a controversial majority draw against Lamont Roach Jr in New York.

Davis was -2000 with the US bookies going into the fight. That’s virtually the same price as Monday following Sunday.

However, he looked ragged and out of ideas for long spells against WBA super-featherweight champion Roach, who was excellent on the night.

The big talking point of the fight was in round nine when ‘Tank’ - who had won all 30 of his previous pro fights going in - voluntarily dropped to his knee. After a few seconds he then made a beeline for his own corner where his face was wiped with a towel before he sauntered back out into the fray.

Amazingly the referee, having clearly seen it, did not call it as a knockdown, and two judges later scored the contest 114-114, with a third giving it to Davis 115-113. That meant a majority draw, and also meant that if third man Steve Willis did score the knockdown as he should have done in round nine, Roach would have left with all the belts.

 

 

The decision to ignore Davis taking the knee was incredible. The Marquess of Queensberry Rules - drafted in 1865 and published in 1867 - state that “a man on one knee is considered down and if struck is entitled to the stakes”.

The Davis knee was so obvious. You can't just take your own time-outs. Unless of course, you are the A-side.

I have watched round nine back a couple of times since Saturday. The decision not to award a knockdown - or indeed sanction the subsequent trip back to his corner mid-round to be touched up by the towel - was wild. It was egregious. A-side treatment at its finest.

Yet to listen to Davis in the post-fight press conference softly confirming that a rematch with Roach is “not going to be next” after their draw was to listen to a man who has potentially had enough of the sport.

It's hard for mere mortals to fathom. On the outside looking in, Davis looks to have it all. He is young (relatively speaking) talented and charismatic. In a sport that feeds off swagger, brashness and self-promotion, 'Tank' and his unique brand seemed a saviour. And his recent pay cheques back that up.

Outside the ring and away from his social media accounts, Davis can be funny, tender at times and extremely likable. He laughs often, smiles even more. But what if he has had enough?

Enough of the relentless camps. Enough of the media brouhaha. Enough of the press intrusion and the pressure that goes with being the sport’s biggest American star?

He’s been boxing since he was a child, and his childhood was really bleak.

Raised in the broken, thuggish neighbourhood of Sandtown-Winchester in Baltimore, he grew up in a community plagued by guns, violence, death and limited opportunities.

Davis’ is a hugely polarising champion. Depending on who you speak to he’s either a generational talent, who is one of the biggest ‘pound-for-pound’ punchers in the sport or a ‘ducker’ who has cherry picked his way to multiple world titles and untold wealth in a series of low risk, high reward assignments.(Esther Lin/Premier Boxing Champions)

Retirement talk has been in the air, and that’s always a tell when a champion is just 30 and seemingly still at the peak of his powers.

When the fight was announced in December, Davis said at the presser “After next year, I'm out of it. Yeah, out of this sport.”

At the age of 30 who can blame him if he wants to exit the hardest sport and enjoy the fruits of his labour and be with his people?

A superstar that deserves to finish on his terms

Being a champion takes a mental, as well as physical toll. He has two young daughters and wants to be more present for his children. Fans would be gutted if a unification fight with WBC champ Shakur Stevenson didn’t happen, or if we missed out on a jump north to 140 and a throw down with lineal/WBO junior-welterweight boss Teofimo Lopez.

Yet what is more important than being more present for his kids? Life is short. It can come and go like a feather in the Baltimore wind.

Davis went on record last year saying, “I want to do therapy but I feel as if I do therapy, I’ll lose the fire I have inside me.”

That sentence is just somebody being real. Somebody who is conflicted.

So what comes next? Only Davis himself knows that. Me? I always hope the guy retires sooner rather than later. Not enough do so in our brutal business.

‘Tank’ pulled himself up from a kid who grew up in unspeakable poverty and morphed into a multimillionaire through his hunger, talent and work ethic. He has won the game already.

If he wants to move the next phase of life – the one where you don't have to get hit in the head no more – then all power to him.

Nothing lasts forever. Forever is a lie. All we have is what's in between hello and goodbye.

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