By: Sean Crose
It appears as if this month’s scheduled exhibition bout between Gervonta Davis and Jake Paul may not see the opening bell. Word is out that Davis’ latest legal problems may prevent him from getting in the ring with Paul on the 14th. With that being said, Chris Mannix is reporting that Ryan Garcia is being offered the chance to step up and take Paul’s place in December. The still scheduled high profile Davis-Paul exhibition has raised the eyebrows of fight fans but will probably bring in a considerable amount of money and eyeballs from casual fans should it actually go down. The much larger Paul, who isn’t a bad boxer per se., is the top novelty fighter in the world. The undefeated Davis, on the other hand is well regarded as being extremely skilled and powerful in the ring.
With that being said, it appears Davis – who has a long history of trouble with the law – is in trouble yet again. This time however, his legal problems could lead to him losing millions of dollars that he would have earned fighting Paul. According to the BBC, Courtney Russell filed a civil suit against Davis on Thursday in which she accused the boxer with aggravated assault, battery, false imprisonment, and even kidnapping. She is asking for more than $50,000 in damages. Davis is accused of having made threats to kill Russell and of attacking her several days ago. Russell claimed that Davis has gone so far as to assault and choke her.
If it turns out Davis is not able to fight this month it doesn’t mean the show won’t go on. Mannix posted on social media that “representatives for Jake Paul have made an offer for Ryan Garcia to fight Paul in December.” Mannix also stated that “Garcia is not the only opponent Paul’s team has approached as they aggressively pursue a replacement for Gervonta Davis.”
Suffice to say this is not time the first time Davis has been accused of mistreating women. The man was recently accused of domestic violence, and has been arrested in February 2020 as well as in December 2022 for accusations of domestic violence. With that being said, neither Davis nor his team has publicly addressed these latest accusations. With only days to go before the scheduled fight against Paul, it remains to be seen what, if anything, will become of the matchup.
