Notebook: Davis, on probation, charged with battery in new case
Accused of hitting mother of two of his children; Inoue-Akhmadaliev location, undercard announced; BetUS show; Quick hits; Show and tell
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WBA lightweight titleholder Gervonta “Tank” Davis is in legal trouble yet again.
Davis, 30, who is on probation for a conviction in a hit-and-run incident for which he served jail time, was arrested Friday morning on a battery charge in Miami Beach, Florida.
The arrest took place nearly one month after he allegedly assaulted his former girlfriend, who is the mother of two of his children, outside of her home in Doral, Florida, on the evening of June 15 — Father’s Day. There had been a warrant out for Davis’ arrest since the incident.
After Davis, a Baltimore native, who lives much of the time in Coral Springs, Florida, was arrested he was taken to the Doral Police Department. As of Friday morning, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center waiting for his bond to be set, according to South Florida ABC television station WPGL Local 10.
The TV station, citing the police report, said Davis went to the woman’s home to pick up their children for Father’s Day, but Davis and the woman wound up in an argument, which then escalated to a physical altercation.
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Davis told his ex-girlfriend to remove their children from his car as he no longer intended to take them, but when she leaned forward to take their daughter from the backseat, Davis struck her in the back of the head and then slapped her in the face, causing a minor cut to the inner area of her lip, according the police report.
The police said the woman texted her mother, who was in the home, and told her that Davis was assaulting her and that she should come outside. The woman did so, saw her distressed daughter crying and arguing with Davis, according the police report. The report added that the woman’s mother recorded part of the incident on her phone, which showed Davis throwing a small box at her daughter.
Davis has had numerous legal issues through the years, including for domestic violence. He also served time for vehicular hit and run, a case for which he is on probation.
In 2023, Davis was sentenced in Baltimore to 90 days of home confinement, three years of probation and 200 hours of community service, which was a suspended term from the 26 months the judge originally gave him. Davis had pleaded guilty to four of 14 charges, including one felony, in connection to a November 2020 hit-and-run accident while driving without a license in Baltimore that left four people injured, including a pregnant woman.
When the judge learned that Davis had broken his home confinement sentence by moving into a luxury hotel and then a new home he had purchased without getting permission from the court, he was sent to jail and served 44 days.
In 2022, an ex-girlfriend, who was the mother of one of his daughters — it is not clear if that woman is the same as the one involved in the current case — called 911 and accused Davis of hitting her during an argument. It resulted in Davis being arrest and charged with one count of misdemeanor domestic assault battery causing bodily harm. He spent a night in jail in Broward County, Florida, before posting bail.
The woman later said she “made an unnecessary call to law enforcement” and “the state of our relationship has been in a fragile space and Gervonta and I were both at fault for the argument.”
On the 911 call, she frantically sought help and claimed that Davis was “going to kill me!”
The result of this new Florida case could impact Davis’ standing with the Baltimore court because he is on probation from the hit-and-run case.
Even before the latest incident, Davis’ return to the ring, which was being planned for Aug.16 in Las Vegas, was in doubt.
Although the fight had not officially announced, Premier Boxing Champions was planning for Davis’ rematch with Lamont Roach Jr. to headline a Prime Video pay-per-view card. But with only five weeks to go, no fight or undercard announcement, tickets not on sale, and Davis not in an official training camp, it is highly unlikely to take place then. It was initially penciled in for June 21 and then shifted to Aug. 16.
Davis (30-0-1, 28 KOs) and WBA junior lightweight titlist Roach (25-1-2, 10 KOs), who moved up in weight to challenge Davis, fought to an extremely controversial draw on a PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view card on March 1 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Inoue-Akhmadaliev details
Undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue and WBA interim titlist and mandatory challenger Murodjon “MJ” Akhmadaliev have been set to fight on Sept. 14 in Japan, but now they have a venue and undercard bouts to compliment the main event.
Ohashi Promotions, which co-promotes Inoue with Top Rank, announced at a news conference on Thursday that the card will take place at IG Arena in Nagoya, Japan. With Top Rank’s deal with ESPN set to expire July 31, the American broadcast plans for the fight are unclear.
Inoue and Akhmadaliev had a deal for the fight pending wins in interim bouts.
On May 4, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), 32, a four-division champion and two-division undisputed champion, stopped heavy underdog Ramon Cardenas to retain the title for the fifth time — and the undisputed crown for the fourth time — but had to survive a second-round knockdown in the action-packed bout.
On May 30, Akhmadaliev (14-1, 11 KOs), 30, a southpaw from Uzbekistan and a former unified titleholder, knocked out Luis Castillo in the eighth round at Domo Alcalde in Guadalajara, Mexico, to do his part.
The undercard will include two world title bouts:
WBO bantamweight titlist Yoshiki Takei (11-0, 9 KOs), 28, a Japanese southpaw, will make his third defense against mandatory challenger Christian Medina (25-4, 18 KOs), 25, of Mexico, who has won four fights in a row.
Yuni Takada (16-8-3, 6 KOs), 27, who has won eight fights in a row, and Japanese countryman Ryusei Matsumoto (6-0, 4 KOs), 27, a southpaw, will meet for the vacant WBA “regular” strawweight title.
BetUS Boxing Show
If you missed the BetUS Boxing Show live at 1 p.m. ET on Friday please check out the replay (and also subscribe to the YouTube channel). We previewed and picked three fights: the Edgar Berlanga-Hamzah Sheeraz WBC super middleweight title eliminator, WBC lightweight titlist Shakur Stevenson’s defense against William Zepeda, and the third fight between undisputed women’s junior welterweight champion Katie Taylor against Amanda Serrano. We also took viewer questions and comments and discussed the latest boxing news! Please check out the show here:
Quick hits
Weights from New York for the Ring magazine card on Saturday (DAZN PPV, 5 p.m. ET, $59.99): Edgar Berlanga 167.6 pounds, Hamzah Sheeraz 167.6 (WBC super middleweight eliminator); Shakur Stevenson 135, William Zepeda 134.6 (for Stevenson’s WBC lightweight title); Alberto Puello 139.8, Subriel Matias 140 (for Puello’s WBC junior welterweight title); David Morrell 174.8, Imam Khataev 174.8; Reito Tsutsumi 134.6, Michael Ruiz 134.8; Mohammed Alakel 136.8, Placido Hoff 135.2.
WBO president Gustavo Olivieri on Friday said that the organization will order a title elimination bout between Denzel Bentley (21-3-1, 17 KOs), 30, of England, and Endry Saavedra (17-1-1, 14 KOs), 34, of Venezuela, for the right to become the mandatory challenger for WBO/IBF titlist Janibek Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs), 32, of Kazakhstan. The official negotiation order will be finalized soon, Olivieri said. Bentley, the European champion, got a shot at Alimkhanuly for the WBO belt in 2022 and lost a unanimous decision, though he gave him perhaps the toughest fight of his career.
Show and tell
Riddick Bowe was coming off having knocked out Evander Holyfield in the eighth round of their third epic battle and was widely considered the No. 1 heavyweight in the world despite not holding a world title at the time. His next fight was not supposed to be all that demanding when he was matched with unbeaten Polish contender Andrew Golota. As it turned out, Golota brought the heat and engaged a diminished Bowe in a slugfest. Golota was ahead on all three scorecards going into the seventh round but he could not stop belting Bowe below the belt.
Finally, in the seventh round, when he landed a horrendous low blow that dropped Bowe in agony, referee Wayne Kelly had no choice but to disqualify Golota. It was a move that led to a confrontation in the ring between the camps, which sparked an all-out riot that infamously engulfed New York’s Madison Square Garden as a shocked national television audience watched it play out live on HBO. That unforgettable fight and post-fight spectacle, which resulted in 22 injuries and 16 arrests, took place on July 11, 1996 — 29 years ago on Friday. Here’s a mint program and a poster from the fight in my collection.
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Photos: Davis: Miami-Dade Corrections & Rehabilitation; Inoue: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Stevenson-Zepeda: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy
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That Manny Pacquiao PPV next week, the final major event of 2025 for PBC? Benavidez has a foot out the door. And Tank's incessant self sabotage Is Trumpian.
Can’t get the f out of his own way.