Floyd Mayweather and his protege, Gervonta Davis, met up this weekend in Las Vegas amidst clear tensions in their relationship.
Both men – one a boxing legend and the other someone trying to reach that status – were in town for David Benavidez’ victory over Caleb Plant.
Despite being a longterm Mayweather Promotions fighter, ‘Tank’ was infamous for tweeting and deleting negative comments about Mayweather and the CEO, Leonard Ellerbe.
In December of last year, the fighter from Baltimore said that he was ‘definitely out of contract, for sure’, although was eager to point out that there was no bad blood.
He went on to sign a fight with Ryan Garcia set for April 22. It will be by far the biggest event of his career, and perhaps of boxing’s calendar year.
Although supposedly a free agent promotionally, Davis was flanked at the recent press conference for the fight by Ellerbe, who spoke on the fight at length.
If that spoke to a good relationship, the fighter’s latest online back and forth with Garcia muddied the waters further. In a tweet to his opponent – now deleted – he said:
“Floyd’s petty ass said I couldn’t use his gym anymore.”
A video from backstage at the Benavidez-Plant event shows the two coming face to face for the first time since the above has unfolded. Although the camera is quickly covered, it appears the pair were willing to talk to settle the bad blood.
‘Tank’ signed with Mayweather in 2015, and has been built into one of America’s brightest boxing stars since, winning world titles and breaking gate records at arenas.
His explosiveness inside the ring, unfortunately, isn’t the only thing to have hit the headlines over the years – as recently alluded to by Mike Tyson. Fans will hope that any issues with Mayweather won’t affect his continued rise in the sport.
What is clear is that Davis is still represented by Al Haymon’s PBC, and his April 22 fight will be broadcast on Showtime PPV for that reason. Garcia is represented by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy – its broadcast parter DAZN also showing the fight via its box office service.