Gervonta Davis packed a full house into the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday for his first appearance in 14 months and then set off a frenzy with a vicious knockout.
Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) knocked out Frank Martin with a left hand at 1:29 of the eighth round to successfully defend his WBA lightweight championship. It was Davis’ first fight since an equally stunning knockout of Ryan Garcia in April 2023.
It was also his first appearance since he served 44 days in a Baltimore detention center last summer for violating the terms of a house arrest stemming from a hit-and-run crash in November 2020 that injured four people.
“Yeah, there’s a little rust, but it’s OK. I’m back,” Davis said. “A couple rounds, I feel as though I ain’t warm up completely how I wanted to. I did warm up, but I got cold as the fight was going on before me. But it’s OK. No excuses.”
All three judges had Davis ahead 67-66 on the scorecards at the time of stoppage. Martin actually swept the first three rounds, but then it was all Davis the rest of the way.
Davis took his time early on as he calmly walked Martin down but rarely opened up with his notorious power. He started to settle in by Round 4, however, and his power had a visible effect on Martin.
A knockout seemed all but inevitable by the seventh, as Martin continued to cede ground and found himself trapped in the corner. Davis kept a steady pressure on and expertly picked his spots. He landed good shots to the body in the fourth round and brought the crowd to its feet in the sixth, seventh and eighth rounds.
Davis delivered the finish with a left uppercut, straight left combination along the ropes. It was a fitting result for what was promoted as the 100th championship fight at the MGM.
