Gervonta Davis' team not pleased with post-fight criticism
LOS ANGELES – Two of Gervonta Davis’ handlers didn’t appreciate the fact that reporters dared to describe his victory over Isaac Cruz on Sunday as “close” even though it was, well, close.
Floyd Mayweather, his promoter, questioned the competency of the judges – who scored it 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113 in Davis’ favor – and then laid into boxing writers, who he suggested know nothing about the sport.
Davis (26-0, 24 KOs) had stopped his previous 16 opponents.
“Fight judges 75 years old, 80 years old, when it’s time to hang ’em up, hang ’em up.,” he said at the post-fight news conference. “I’m not being biased. If ‘Tank’ got his ass whooped, I would say … he got his ass whooped. Easy fight, from what I saw.
“ did come out … four rounds, he could’ve got … but for eight rounds he was getting outboxed.”
The Hall of Famer went on: “I’ve been in that position before, fighting guys like that. If a guy throws a few good shots, a guy may win a couple of rounds. Then it’s not different from Marcos Maidana fight. If a guy wins three, four rounds you say the won the fight.
“They expected Tank to knock this guy out tonight. Since he didn’t knock this guy out, they’ll say he lost. That’s how it works.”
At that moment Davis asked a reporter whether he thought Cruz gave him “a hard time.” The reporter responded, “Yes.” Then Mayweather chimed in again.
“Most of the time you have to teach these so called boxing specialists, boxing journalists about boxing. They really don’t know. Like Roger Mayweather said, may he rest in peace, ‘They don’t know s— about boxing.’
“We’re not saying that wasn’t aggressive. He did throw a few good body shots, a few good head shots in the fight. That comes with the territory. You can’t be the only one throwing all the punches. Then it wouldn’t be a fair fight.”
Then Calvin Ford, Davis’ trainer, expressed his frustration.
“Let me explain something to you all,” he said. “ hand got hurt in camp. He never complained about it. He came out here and put on a hell of a show. That’s the bottom line. He fought this kid with one hand. He came in the corner at the sixth round and said his hand was hurting. … I said, ‘I don’t want to hear that.’ I said, ‘Fight through it.’ And he did that.
“Y’all got to give this young man his props.”
Davis said he injured the hand in the sixth round but, to his credit, he didn’t want to dwell on it.
“I wasn’t comfortable fighting a shorter fighter,” he said. “The only thing was when I was throwing my punches, I was hitting him on top of his head. That’s why my hand was hurting so bad. I think that’s why I didn’t get a knockout.
“… I don’t want to put it on my hand. I did what I did. This is about boxing. I knew coming into this fight forget the hand. I did what I had to do.”