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Gervonta Davis took to social media to complain about not being invited by Turki Al-Sheikh to the Ring Awards event last Saturday in London. Davis seemed bitter about not being one of Turki’s invited fighters.
Turki’s elections
WBA lightweight champion Tank Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) said Al-Sheikh invited only people he “deals with.” What really angered him was seeing Shakur Stevenson among the fighters posing with Turki for a photo.
Shakur was in a prominent position for the photo, indicating his high status as a wrestler among the group. Devin Haney and Ryan García were also invited.
That must have boiled Tank’s kettle because it doesn’t qualify Shakur, who tends to get booed when he fights. He’s not in the same league as Gervonta in terms of entertainment, ticket sales and PPV draw. Shakur is a retro-Mayweather guy from the early 2000s who seems out of place in this era where fighters must either entertain or not.
However, Shakur’s signing with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom means he will be invited to Turki’s events and will fight on their Riyadh season card next month on February 22. If Tank Davis had been with Hearn, he surely would have been invited. Shakur said in an interview last Saturday that Turki will soon arrange a fight between him and Tank Davis.
“Why didn’t they invite everyone but they did invite people they deal with. “Fuck you out of here… Look at the little rat thinking he came up with something (Eddie Hearn) and now tell them to fight each other since they have a heavy squad,” Tank Davis said in unknown.
Who enters and who leaves?
Fans who view this negatively would argue that Turki has created a small club or clique of fighters that selects and pays well for his huge cards.
Fighters who are not invited are left behind and do not receive the same attention to grow their careers. They sit on the sidelines and don’t make much money because they’re not in the club.
In sociology they are “within the group” and the “outgroup”. The group forms cliques, gets invited to parties, and generally gets the best of everything.
The “outgroup” is not allowed into the ingroup unless they do something that sets them apart, such as being successful at something. are treated as outcasts either lepers and rejected by the internal group. Tank Davis seems to resent not being part of the group.
In the past, Tank Davis said that Turki Al-Sheikh would need to send “two Ferraris” to his door as a starting point to begin negotiations to fight in one of his letters. That didn’t happen.
“If they want me, they have to send me something to my door… like two Ferraris or something,” Tank Davis said in an interview.
