Gervonta Davis: MIA

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody’s around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Well, that philosophical question can be re-worked and applied to Gervonta “Tank” Davis.

If a boxing star doesn’t fight, is he really a star?

Davis is currently America’s biggest boxing star and he’s among the elite, worldwide, when it comes to drawing power and name recognition. But how long can his star shine if he doesn’t fight a fellow star or, at the very least, fight someone who registers as a bankable B-side?

Davis’ June 15 dismantling and KO of Frank Martin was impressive. Martin was, at worst, a Top 5-7 lightweight at the time of the bout. But beating a Top 5-7 guy is not exactly the stuff of legends, especially when your last fight was over a year ago, against a guy (Ryan Garcia) you were nearly a 3-to-1 favorite to beat.

And it’s especially, ESPECIALLY un-legendary as the Martin fights drifts into the background and there’s nothing really noteworthy anywhere near the horizon.

Can we blame some of this nothingness on OTHER guys when it comes to Davis? Yes.

There were rumored talks between Team Tank and Team Vasiliy Lomachenko for a bout later in the year, but those came to an abrupt end at Lomachenko’s own request. Per manager Egis Klimas, “Loma is not in the mood right now, he doesn’t have the motivation at the moment.”

Okay.

So, then attention turned to Shakur Stevenson, a recent promotional free agent whose contract with Top Rank had just expired.

According to reports, Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), Davis’ preferred boxing company, had approached Stevenson to gauge his interest in a Davis bout, but never came through with follow-up talks.

Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, would then move on Stevenson. The Saudi agent is currently working on guiding the lightweight titlist towards a bout with no. 1 contender William Zepeda.

Davis, in less than a month, has lost the two biggest fight options available to him and there’s nothing else really “big” within eyesight.

Even a biggish rematch with Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz is off the table now that the come-forward Mexican was upset this past August 3 by Jose “El Rayo” Valenzuela for the WBA junior welterweight title.

So, now what?

Well, common matchmaking sense might say that Davis could fight Valenzuela next to pick up another alphabet title.

However, Cruz has a rematch clause with Valenzuela and there’s no logical reason for him not to exercise it after a very close split decision loss the first time around.

If one wanted to be creative, Davis could possibly be rematched in another big-seller with Ryan Garcia, who destroyed Devin Haney in April. The increasingly weird Garcia, however is serving a one-year suspension over testing positive for a banned substance and will be ineligible until next April, at the earliest– if he doesn’t mentally implode before that.

And how about Haney? His loss to Garcia was turned into a no contest, so he’s technically still undefeated and has a belt waiting for him as WBC champion in recess if/when he wants it.

Let’s face it, though, Haney is damaged goods at this point. His loss may have been overturned, but the image of him getting smashed and hurt over and over again remains in the public’s memory. Davis would get nothing from beating Haney at this point. And, honestly, Haney may not even be up for a Tank fight after being embarrassed against Garcia.

It would require even more creativity to imagine a scenario where Top Rank’s Teofimo Lopez enters Davis’ eyesight. Teo-Tank at 140 would be huge, though, even if such a matchup is more fan fiction than anything else.

So, again, now what?

A PBC in the doldrums would certainly appreciate Davis getting back into the ring before another year passes. But, with nothing big anywhere on the horizon and a smaller fight not really doing much for anyone, beyond padding Davis’ nest egg a bit, there’s just not much enthusiasm for a guy right now who is legitimately one of the sport’s more engaging fighters.

For now, everyone waits. Tank seems to be in no rush to make his next move.