Gervonta Davis still refuses to take accountability for actions.
Days after being sent to jail for violating the terms of his house arrest, the unbeaten boxing star spoke out on the circumstances which landed him in this situation. Davis was previously sentenced to 90 days of house arrest and three years of probation after entering a guilty plea to four misdemeanor counts from a November 2020 hit-and-run incident in his Baltimore hometown.
During the May 5 sentence hearing, Davis’ legal team and boxing team both made clear that the home of longtime head trainer Calvin Ford would be made available to serve his house arrest.
It was since learned by authorities that Davis was staying at a local Four Seasons hotel prior to purchasing a $3.4 million condominium in the Silo Point luxury community in Baltimore. Neither location was reported to the court by the boxer or his legal team. Davis was then ordered to attend an impromptu hearing on June 1, at which point judge Althea M. Handy instructed authorities to take him into custody at Baltimore Central Booking.
“This judge is crazy,” Davis insisted in a recorded call from jail as posted to an Instagram Story through his verified account. “This judge is… they seen I bought a property. I did everything in my power to listen to my lawyers. I listened to everyone to a ‘T.’ She’s mad that I brought a property. That’s why I’m sitting in jail.”
Michael Tomko, Davis’ attorney throughout the trial, attempted to accept blame during Thursday’s hearing.
“I don’t think that Mr. Davis did anything wrong except listen to his lawyer,” Tomko said.
The excuse didn’t fly with judge Handy, who was equally critical of the attorney and Davis himself during the May 5 sentence hearing. Handy noted that Davis failed to accept blame in the November 2020 incident. Davis never made a statement during the February 16 hearing where he pled guilty in lieu of continuing with the trial, nor did he offer comment during the sentence hearing—not even to Jyair Smith, who was pregnant and injured at the time of the crash and the only of the four victims who declined to settle out of court.
“Three words. I am sorry,” Handy said to Davis during the May 5 hearing. “And he was not man enough to do that. … He’s shown absolutely no remorse.”
Handy ordered Davis to serve his house arrest in Baltimore, where the crash took place. She considered it a disservice for the superstar boxer to return home to his luxury home in South Florida, instead ordering him to remain in state where he would also have to perform 200 hours of community service not related to boxing.
Davis and his legal team were clearly caught off guard by the ruling, perhaps the reason why Ford immediately offered his residence. The act was in good faith, though it was quickly made clear that his intimate residence could not properly accommodate Davis or his 24-hour security detail.
“She wanted me to be in an apartment… a one-(bedroom) apartment,” Davis stated, lacking any understanding of why he was in this situation. “I couldn’t take that. She wanted me to stay in a one-(bedroom) apartment where I couldn’t have my kids or nothing and things like that.
“I wanted to shed some light on this situation. She’s taking advantage of me and she’s doing stuff that’s not right to me. I just had to shed light on this situation.”
Davis (29-0, 27KOs) will now remain in jail until August 3, according to the original house arrest sentence.
The development comes following his most high-profile victory and successful venture to date. Davis scored a seventh-round knockout of then-unbeaten Ryan Garcia (23-1, 19KOs) in their April 22 non-title fight in front of a sold-out crowd at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Showtime Pay-Per-View event generated more than $125,000,000 in combined PPV, ticket sales and sponsorship revenue.
The win came three months after Davis scored a ninth-round stoppage of unbeaten WBA junior lightweight titlist Hector Garcia (16-1, 10KOs with 3 No-Contests; no relation to Ryan Garcia), who moved up in weight to challenge for Davis’ WBA ‘Regular’ lightweight title on January 7 at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. The event moved forward days after Davis entered a not guilty plea in a separate trial in South Florida stemming from a December 27 arrest for an alleged domestic violence incident. That case was since abandoned by the State’s Attorney’s office in Broward County on May 22.
Davis was involved in an earlier domestic violence case in Miami from a February 2020 incident involving the mother of his first child. The boxer was charged with two misdemeanor counts of Simple Battery for his actions—caught on video—where he aggressively grabbed the woman while in attendance for a charity basketball game in Miami during Super Bowl week. That case was also abandoned by prosecutors last December 13, two weeks prior to the alleged incident in his Parkland, Florida residence.
Inside the ring, Davis is high among the very short list of true boxing superstars in North America. The April 22 win marked his sixth consecutive Showtime PPV headliner, all of which have played to sizable crowds including record-breaking box-office gates at Barclays Center in Brooklyn and Capital One Arena.
By Jake Donovan