Gervonta Davis gives another example of boxing turning a blind eye to domestic violence – Irish Times

In the audio of a 911 call made two days after Christmas, Vanessa Posso sounds petrified as she yells at the operator, “He’s going to kill me!” I hear her cry later. she is going home He has a baby in the car and he attacked me in front of the child. And now he’s ruining my tires. ”

Within an hour, Broward County police arrested 28-year-old WBA lightweight world champion Jerbonta “Tank” Davis and charged him with battery for physically harming the mother of one of his children. According to official reports, the undefeated boxer, who had 26 stops in 28 career wins, slapped Posso on the right side of his head and cut the inside of his upper lip. He was eventually released on $1,000 bail.

Ten days later, nearly 20,000 people filled Washington’s Capital One Arena and Davis defeated Hector Luis Garcia by TKO to retain the title. By the end of the eighth round, Garcia was briefly blinded by a ferocious Davis gust, culminating in him with a percussive left hand to his right cheek. Many of the fans were pouring in from the winner’s nearby hometown of Baltimore, cheering him on the rafters.

Between these two events, Davis denied hitting Posso on Instagram. A post he later mysteriously deleted. She then made a lengthy statement of her own.

“The state of our relationship was in a fragile space, and Gelbonta and I were both responsible for the argument,” Posso said. Made unnecessary calls to law enforcement, Jerbonta did no harm to me or my daughter, today we have asked for the help we need to move forward in life. With the counseling provided, we are confident that we will thrive within the dynamics of co-parenting.”

Even by the strict standards of the boxing world, the handling of the Davis case was daunting. There didn’t seem to be any serious argument for the fight not progressing under the circumstances, never mind that it was his second arrest in less than three years for domestic violence. In February 2020, at a celebrity basketball game in Miami, he caught cameras grabbing her star’s ex-girlfriend and mother of another child, Doretta, by the neck and dragging her out of the arena. Caught. She suffered injuries to her lip and chin, and he was charged with a simple battery.

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“I never hit her,” Davis said after the incident. “Yeah, I was aggressive and told her ‘come on her’. That’s my child’s mother. I would never hurt her.”

Despite a disturbing pattern of behavior towards women and multiple altercations with men outside the ring, coverage of his recent win has been met by his pay-per-view performance (Showtime TV’s very respectable 215,000 at $74.99 per person). purchase). A date for a possible superfight with Ryan Garcia, Las Vegas in April is the right time and place for the much-anticipated bout, but Davis has legal issues to deal with before then. He is scheduled to appear in Baltimore court on his February 16th.

Denied a plea bargain, he will be tried there on 14 charges related to hit-and-run in the early hours of Nov. 5, 2020. its resident. Aside from pending criminal cases, he has already settled civil cases with three passengers involved. trapped in She screamed for her help, claiming Davis “looked me in the eye and he never came.”He fled the scene on foot.

Floyd Mayweather also did well at the box office, so multiple arrests and even imprisonment for assaulting a woman didn’t affect his earning power.

The crash occurred less than two miles from the boxing gym where Davis first discovered the sport. With a drug-addicted mother and a father in prison, he and his siblings spent much of his difficult childhood moving back and forth between a group home and their grandmother. We found an outlet for the attack and unearthed a rare fist talent at a facility run by ex-con Calvin Ford. The story of Ford’s own redemption of the ring, a former deputy in his gang, is HBO’s Dickensian portrait of city life, The Wire. formed the basis for Kati’s character, who would have a similar arc in .

With Ford working on his corner, Davis’ story should be a classic feel-good rag-to-rich thread, but it’s not. Promoted by Weather. The greatest fighter of his generation did so well at the box office that multiple arrests and even being jailed for assaulting a woman didn’t affect his earning power. Maybe his former protégé sees it and thinks the same applies to him, or maybe the UFC is Dana White after being caught on video slapping his wife at a New Year’s Eve party. A place where you didn’t even stop.

“These are just bumps on the road that we all face in life,” Davis said of his own struggles.

Just human? No, never.