Gervonta Davis and Turki Alalshikh probably won’t be working together anytime soon. The reigning WBA lightweight champion was seemingly upset he wasn’t invited to the Ring Magazine awards, where most of the top stars and legends in the sport convened to recognize the best in the business in 2024.
The event was held at The Old Royal Naval College in London, and the guest list read like a who’s who of the sport: Oleksandr Usyk, Canelo Alvarez, Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, Shakur Stevenson, Lennox Lewis, and dozens of others.
The Ring Magazine, which is now owned by Alalshikh, posted this iconic image on their social media accounts.
Davis took the same image from Matchroom Boxing’s Instagram account and added a caption profanely slamming Alalshikh and everyone in attendance.
“Why they didn’t invite everybody,” Davis asked in his post. “But they invited people they deal w…f### outta here. stop d### eating. Look at the little rat thinking he came up on something (Eddie). Now tell them all fight each other..since they have a heavy roster.”
Davis continued his rant in another post.
“They wanna act like this guy good for boxing when he not good at s###,” Davis exclaimed. “If so why he not building the people where he from? “This GUY KNOWS S### ABOUT BOXING AT ALL AND THIS WHO THEY TURING TO..ALL D### EATERS.”
Lastly, he blasted fighters who have gone to Saudi Arabia to collect the massive paydays associated with Alalshikh’s Riyadh Season cards.
“Lol, they have to go over there to make money and still do,” Davis said. “I sell where I’m from B####, AMERICA.”
“They be going over there getting their ass kicked fighting in front of a total of 19 people..but becuz they rich it’s cool.”
Quite honestly, this approach doesn’t look good on Davis. I fully support him sticking to his guns. If he elects not to head over to Saudi Arabia to fight, that’s his prerogative.
However, slamming other fighters as they celebrate and endure the challenges of networking and making business moves looks more like jealousy than genuine concern for the state of the sport. Davis is scheduled to face Lamont Roach Jr. at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on March 1.
Roach is a competitor and a good athlete, but few give him a chance against Davis. Because of the way the fight looks on paper, Davis has been criticized for his choice of opposition.
That criticism, along with other struggles, has seemingly influenced Davis to be in a surly and unpredictable mood over the past two months. Davis seemed frustrated and easily triggered at a recent press event where he also mentioned he planned to retire at the end of 2025.
In the last week of 2024, Davis took to Instagram to announce the fight with Roach was “canceled,” only for that notion to be dismissed by promoters and the network brand, Premier Boxing Champions.
At some point, perhaps Davis will come around as it pertains to Alalshikh, but maybe he won’t. In any case, he’s still one of the best lightweights of his era, and with a few more quality wins added to his resume, he could still reach all-time great status, whether in or outside of Saudi Arabia.
