There were, as fans who tuned in to watch the so-called ‘Oscars of boxing’ know, a whole lot of stars from the boxing world in attendance during Saturday’s Ring Magazine Award show in London. With one notable exception as far as active star fighters go……. Gervonta “Tank” Davis was not there, and it seems the unbeaten southpaw is angry at having been slighted when it came to the dishing out of the invites.
Taking to social media a few hours back, Tank laid into Turki Alalashikh, the new owner of course of Ring Magazine, and into the fighters who are in his opinion pretty much selling out by taking big money to go and fight in Saudi Arabia. Put it this way, after what he has had to say, don’t expect Tank to be making any fight deals with Alalshikh any time soon.
Here’s what Tank had to say:
“Why they didn’t invite everybody,” Davis wrote. “But they invited people they deal with…..f*** outta here. Stop d*** eating. Look at that little rat thinking he came up on something (presumably Eddie Hearn). Now tell them all [to] fight each other…since they have a heavy roster.
“They wanna act like this guy Alalshikh] good for boxing when he not good at s**t. If so why he not building the people where he from? This guy knows s**t about boxing at all and this who they’re turning to. All d*** eaters. Lol, they have to go over there to make money and still do. 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.”
So, what, exactly, is Tank’s problem here? If he feels fighters have sold out by going to earn career-best paydays by taking big fights in Saudi Arabia – the kind of fights we fans want to see happen – then that’s up to him. But why criticise the fighters who have opted to earn big money while they can do so? A boxer’s career can be short, so they have to earn while they can, they have to earn well while the window of opportunity is open.
Or maybe Tank doesn’t like the fact that most of the massive fights are taking place in Saudi today, not in the US. But Turki has staged big cards in America, and he aims to do so again. Maybe Tank is simply annoyed because he is missing out on the mega paydays? Who knows for sure? But the way he has made himself look with his recent messages on social media, well, it could certainly make a person think the reigning WBA lightweight champion is jealous.
But here’s the thing: Turki does want to work with Tank, as he is interested in matching Shakur Stevenson (who was at the Ring event in London and has zero problems with Alalshikh) with him in what could be a great and massive fight.
Again, just what is the real reason for Tank’s beef with Turki?
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