By Vince Dwriter: Eleven days prior to his January 7 bout with Hector Luis Garcia, WBA (regular) champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis was arrested in Parkland, Florida, on domestic violence charges, but on the following day, he was released after his bond was set at $1,000.
The 28-year-old Davis was accused of hitting a woman with a closed-hand type of slap that resulted in an abrasion on her upper lip. In addition to the alleged injury, the 911 audio from the call was leaked to the public as it revealed how the female was frantically asking the officer for help.
Three days later, the accuser retracted her domestic violence claim, and she released a public statement, saying the boxer “did not harm me or our daughter.” Many members of the media published articles about the arrest, and they also wrote about the retraction, but one particular boxing journalist continues to push his agenda.
ESPN Boxing and MMA reporter Mike Coppinger wrote about the arrest. In his article, he slipped in a comment regarding a precedent for PBC and Showtime to possibly pull Davis from the bout. However, Coppinger did write about the retraction of the allegations, but then he unnecessarily wrote a follow-up article.
The follow-up article was based on the arrest history of Gervonta Davis, in which Coppinger made a timeline of incidents from 2019 to 2022. Boxing fans took to social media to voice their opinions in regard to the lack of class that Mike Coppinger displayed by publishing an article that seems like a pointless attack against Davis.
The fact that Mike Coppinger would publish this type of article after the accuser recanted her claims is a sign of a writer who is trying to push the narrative, and it also gives the appearance that Coppinger has some type of personal animosity towards Davis. Boxing fans didn’t appreciate the move because they believe Coppinger was pushing an agenda to get Davis pulled from the fight.
The fans made a move of their own as they made aggressive suggestions on their posts to cancel all their subscriptions to ESPN unless the network fired Coppinger. The fans are upset due to the fact that the ESPN writer used his platform to extensively cover this particular story about Davis, but he neglected to shed light on situations that other figures in the sport of boxing were involved in.
Fans have pointed out the fact that Coppinger hasn’t shown the same type of energy in reporting other stories, such as the incidents involving Sergey Kovalev and Joseph “JoJo” Diaz. Coppinger isn’t a stranger when it comes to tension in the boxing community, as he has experienced controversial moments with other members of the boxing fraternity.
After knocking out Brian Castano in May 2022, Jermell Charlo went on a rant as Coppinger attempted to ask a question at the post-fight press conference. Charlo seemed to be agitated at the sight of Coppinger as he proceeded to call the reporter a “hater.”
In October 2021, Coppinger was once again in a sticky situation when he accused Bob Arum of not paying Teofimo Lopez what he was looking for. Arum responded by saying, “shut the f**k up, you little pri*k!”
The boxing fans who are displeased with Mike Coppinger truly believe his recent actions were a result of his hidden agenda to get Gervonta Davis pulled out of the fight. However, there is speculation but no concrete evidence regarding the claims by the fans.
Nevertheless, the show will go on as the WBA (regular) lightweight champion Gervonta Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) is set to clash with the WBA super featherweight champion Hector Luis Garcia (16-0, 10 KOs) on January 7 at the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. live on Showtime Pay-per-view.
Mike Coppinger’s timeline article about Gervonta Davis was meant to bring negative vibes in Tank’s direction, but the main question is, was it an attempt to get Davis pulled from the fight? Since the event will proceed as scheduled… I guess we’ll never know.