“When I first was around the n–a [Gervonta Davis], he was showing a lot of love. And then once I became a threat, is where like everything switched over. Once, like, people start talking about me and my name started getting bigger then it was like ‘I’ll go fight, I’ll get on Twitter’,” the WBC lightweight champ Shakur Stevenson said in a recent interview on Cigar Talk a few weeks ago about how his relationship with Tank went sour.

Stevenson and three-division world champion Gervonta Davis‘ paths first crossed in the amateur circuit. While the duo were never really close, they did share some mutual respect and admiration. But, if Stevenson is to be believed, it all changed once he started gaining some notoriety and was billed as a promising competitor for Tank in the lightweight division. Stevenson, of course, has long called for a fight with Baltimore native, who remains the biggest star in and around lightweight in the world.

However, while Shakur Stevenson is desperate to fight Gervonta Davis in his “dream fight”, Tank has been far more reluctant. In fact, the multi-belt holding superstar has been quite dismissive of the idea (for reasons we will discuss more in depth later). But Stevenson seems like a pretty chill guy. He understands and has made peace with the fact that Tank holds all the cards and will be the one to decide when they fight.

“You know, like, with Tank [Davis], I always knew, like, with him being a big superstar, you know, it’s gonna happen on his time. It ain’t gonna be on my time. So, I can call, I’m gonna call for it, I’m gonna say his name. However, he can get mad, but truthfully, it’s on his time. Whenever he say ‘let’s fight’,” Stevenson said on ‘The Ring’ podcast. Now let us take a look at what Davis thinks of a fight with ‘Outlaw’.

Why Gervonta Davis doesn’t want to fight Shakur Stevenson

“What has Shakur done? He hasn’t done anything,” Tank thundered at a pre-fight presser to promote his Lamont Roach Jr. clash last December. “The young ones are looking better than him. Keyshawn [Davis] is looking way better than [him]. You keep mentioning his name but he hasn’t done nothing. Keyshawn hasn’t even done nothing. Why do you keep saying his name for?”

Clearly, Davis is in no mood to fight Stevenson, at least at the moment. To be fair, the WBC lightweight champion is an undefeated boxer like Davis. While not as big a star as ‘Tank’ the knockout artist, he is still a star. Moreover, many feel that ‘Outlaw’s elite defensive prowess, exceptional ring IQ, and the ability to change mid-fight would be a stiff challenge to the WBA lightweight champion. So, could it be that Tank is ‘ducking’ Stevenson and is afraid of taking a loss and ruining his unblemished record?

“Afraid of what? It would have to be someone who’s hitting and hurting– he don’t have no offense. Everything is defense. Defense is only winning basketball and football. That sh*t don’t win in boxing,” Davis told reporters at the same press conference.

The very fact that Gervonta Davis is being asked about a Stevenson fight shows how much interest there is in the fight. And since the 30-year-old is seemingly of the Mayweather school of promotion and picking fights, there is a very good chance that Davis-Stevenson will eventually happen. Let’s just hope we get to see it soon and that it isn’t dragged out like Mayweather-Pacquiao. But either way, Shakur Stevenson is at peace with the fact that it is out of his hands. What do you think about Stevenson’s take on the Tank Davis fight?