Davis: “Atlanta Has Always Showed Me Love and Respect!”

Gervonta Davis A Family Affair

To the uninitiated eye, Gervonta “Tank” Davis (22-0, 21 KO’s) will be a new comer to the Atlanta, GA neck of the woods for his Saturday December 28 dust-up with Yuriorkis “El Ciclon” Gamboa (30-2, 18 KO’s). The two foes will compete to claim the vacant WBA world lightweight title. Yet, while it will stand as his first professional outing in the region, Davis is far from a stranger.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Throughout the build-up for the Davis v Gamboa showdown, the fact that Tank is trying his luck in the lucrative Atlanta market has remained a heavy talking point. It’s no secret that the area is saturated by successful young professional blacks with a bit of money to spend.

Yet, even with this being the case there has not been a professional title fight in the city in over twenty years. That streak will come to a screeching halt on Saturday. It looks like Tank will indeed make a pretty penny in the process. Although, his main motivation was anchored more in family rather than finance.

As he explained in the final presser, he has remained a fixture in ATL for a number of years due to the mother of his child and their daughter, Gervanni. Davis revealed that his daughter’s mother is actually from Atlanta and still deeply infused in the city.

Therefore it was important for them to maintain her presence there. To facilitate that endeavor, Tank has proven to be a mainstay in the untapped boxing market for quite a few years now.

“This is my first time in Atlanta fighting. You know I been wanting to fight here for some years. I been coming here for probably over four or five years. Actually my daughter is from here, her mother from here and things like that, so Atlanta has always showed me love and respect. So I always thought that me fighting in Atlanta would be big and I have a big fan base here.

Training camp has been great, I’ve been training with my brothers and my sister. My youngest sister, Mia Ellis, is on the card. So, shout out to her for stepping up to the plate and turning pro.”

DREAMS OF A CHAMPION

Outside of putting on a great performance for his Atlanta fans, Tank is eager to get his hands on another world title. Davis is a former IBF world super featherweight and WBA super world super featherweight champion. Now that he has formally moved up to lightweight, Davis wants to get back to a belt-holding status.

In his estimation, there is frightfully little that El Ciclon can do to thwart his present plans.

“Saturday night we’ll be making history again. There hasn’t been a title fight in here since over 20 years and things like that, so I’m definitely excited to be in this position to open the doors for others and also myself.

Saturday night we’re going to have a big fight. Thank you all for coming out, thank you Gamboa for taking the chance. You know trying to defend what he got going on and Saturday night its going to be an action-packed fight, yeah. And we’ll see who got it all, what it takes!”

By: Bakari Simpson