Gervonta Davis will return to the ring on Saturday to defend her WBA lightweight title against Frank Martin (8 p.m. ET, Prime Video). It will be the star boxer’s first fight since he spent 44 days in custody in Baltimore last summer.
The judge ruled that Davis had violated the terms of his house arrest (90-day sentence), and he served the remainder of his time in prison before being released on July 14. The punishment was imposed after Davis pleaded guilty in May 2023 to four charges stemming from a November 2020 traffic accident that injured four people, including a pregnant woman.
The prison stay follows Davis’ career-best performance, a seventh-round TKO of Ryan Garcia in an April 2023 superfight that generated more than 1 million pay-per-view buys.
“I think I’m a lot wiser than when I fought Ryan, just because of the things I’ve been through in my life,” Davis, 29, recently told ESPN. “I feel like it has made me grow as a man and as a person. And I think it will assist boxing. … I think I’ll be much better than I was before. … Extremely joyful to have all this bullshit… I’m joyful to be back in the boxing world… I’m just excited to be back in the mix.
Davis’ return is being presented as the 100th night of a championship fight at the famed MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the same venue that hosted Floyd Mayweather’s record-breaking fight against Manny Pacquiao in 2015 and dozens of the sport’s most essential fights.
Davis (29-0, 27 KO) previously worked with Mayweather’s promotional company of the same name. The pair have since argued publicly, with Davis and Mayweather mocking each other on social media. Mayweather has repeatedly made false claims that the Davis-Martin fight was canceled and did so again on Thursday night.
That same night, Mayweather announced that former Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer would assume the same role at Mayweather Promotions, replacing Leonard Ellerbe, who accompanied Davis to Wednesday’s press conference.
In a now-deleted post on X, Davis called Mayweather a “bitter son of a bitch.”
Davis, ESPN’s No. 7 pound-for-pound boxer, is a -750 favorite to beat Martin, according to ESPN BET. Martin, ESPN’s fifth lightweight, will be fighting for his first world title. He will do so against a man who feels rejuvenated after his experiences outside the ring last summer.
“I am powerful and I can survive anything,” Davis added. “…I’m a fighter, so I can come off as cocky sometimes. But most of the time, I’ll try to stay humble, make the best of my situation, and do everything I can to stay out of damn trouble.”