by Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Gervonta Davis knows how Vasiliy Lomachenko feels.
Lomachenko turned down a deal for a lightweight title unification fight against Davis in the summer because the three-division champion considered retiring. Lomachenko, 36, remains an active boxer, but the Ukrainian southpaw has not decided whether he will return to the ring in 2025.
Davis revealed during a press conference Tuesday in Brooklyn that he, too, is considering retiring from the sport. The 30-year-old Baltimore native has rarely talked about retiring from boxing, so his announcement surprised many who attended the event to promote the American superstar’s pay-per-view main event against Lamont Roach at Barclays Center.
“After next year, I’ll get over it,” Davis told Premier Boxing champion Miguel Flores, who moderated the press conference. “Besides the sport.”
Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) also said he plans to fight three times in 2025 before calling it a career. In addition to boxing Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs), Davis listed Ryan Garcia, who he knocked out in the seventh round of their April 2023 fight, and former fully unified lightweight champion Devin Haney as potential opponents.
The left-handed Davis did not mention Lomachenko as an option for his second fight next year, possibly because he does not believe Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs) will fight again.
“I should (have) fought Lomachenko, right?” Davis said. “And, like he said he was retired and stuff like that. I feel like we’ve been at this for so long that we’re all sick of it. Like beating our bodies for so long. But it’s important to have situations like this now, like (Roach) speaking out, that re-triggers the plug.”
Davis, who made his pro debut in February 2013, has given serious thought to what he would do if he retired from boxing.
“Probably (I’d) be more into building my real estate portfolio,” Davis said, “and I guess try to get out of the limelight, you know?”
The WBA lightweight champion opened as a 16-1 favorite to defeat Roach, who moved up from the 130lb bantamweight limit to challenge Davis for the WBA 135lb crown. Davies hasn’t played three times in a calendar year since 2019, when he shut out Hugo Ruiz, Ricardo Nunez and Yurikis Gamboa.
