Former five-weight world champion and founder of Mayweather Promotions, Floyd Mayweather, has responded to the news that Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis has ended his long-term relationship with the companu.
Davis signed with Mayweather Promotions in 2015 and in just over two years, won the IBF super-featherweight world title, knocking out Jose Pedraza in the seventh round of their fight.
Tank went on to win the WBA world title the year after, continuing to knock out every opponent, before announcing his step up to lightweight.
At 135lb, Davis knocked out Yuriorkis Gamboa, winning the WBA Regular lightweight title and then won the 2020 knockout of the year in his next fight, finishing Leo Santa Cruz with a brutal lead uppercut.
Then his relationship with mentor Mayweather seemed to take a turn for the worse and after three more wins in 2021 and 2022, Davis announced his split from the company.
As one of the faces of the sport nowadays, it is a detrimental loss for Mayweather Promotions. Yet, on the Earn Your Leisure podcast, Mayweather revealed his support for Davis, despite losing the crown jewel of his business.
“I have always been a gentleman, I have always been respectful. There is nothing like taking a kid, that came from the same background as you, and helping them and putting them in a position to become a multi-millionaire.”
“You meet a kid, he just came up to you for an autograph, you sign the autograph for him, then I tell him ‘in a few years, when you get older, I’m going to work with you and make you a world champion someday’. Years later, I started working with him, helped him, pushed him to be great and if he feels like he has grown wings and can fly, become his own boss, more power to him.”
“I didn’t get into the sport of boxing, after I retired, to not want to see fighters grow. If he feels like he can surpass Floyd Mayweather, or be the next Floyd Mayweather, I’m here to push you. Go for it.”
Tank has recently agreed a mega fight with Ryan Garcia for 2023, in one of the must-see fights of next year. However, he will first take a difficult ‘tune-up’ fight against the WBA Regular super-featherweight champion, Hector Luis Garcia, on January 7th, whilst ‘King Ry’ announced that he will not take an interim fight.