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Gervonta Davis took to social media to complain that Turki Al-Sheikh didn’t invite him to the Ring Awards last Saturday in London. Davis seemed bitter that he wasn’t one of the fighters Turki called up.
Turki’s Choices
WBA lightweight champion Tank Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) said Al-Sheikh only invited people he “deals with.” What really set him off was what he saw Shakur Stevenson among the fighters posing with Turki for a photo.
Shakur featured prominently in the photo, indicating his high status as a fighter in the group. Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia was also invited.
Tank’s kettle must have boiled because he doesn’t rate Shakur, who tends to get booed when he fights. He is not in the same league as Gervonta in terms of entertainment, ticket sales and PPV attraction. Shakur is a retro-Mayweather guy from the early 2000s who seems out of place in this era where fighters have to have fun or else.
However, Shakur’s signing with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom means he will be invited to Turkey’s events and fight on his season card in Riyadh next month on February 22. If Tank Davis was with Hearn, he would surely have been invited. Shakur said in an interview last Saturday that Turki will soon set up a fight between him and Tank Davis.
“Why didn’t they invite everyone, instead they invited the people they work with.” Get the hell out of here… Look at the little rat who thinks he’s got something (Eddie Hearn) now tell them they’re all fighting each other because they’ve got a tough roster,” Tank Davis said on Ks.
Who’s in, who’s out
Fans who take a negative view of this would argue that Turki has created a small club or clique of fighters that he selects and pays well for his huge cards.
Fighters who don’t get drafted are left behind and don’t have the same spotlight to develop their careers. They are left on the sidelines and do not earn big money because they are not in the club.
They are in sociology “in group” and the “out of group”. The group within the group forms cliques, gets invited to parties and generally gets the best of everything.
An “out-group” is not allowed into the group unless they do something that sets them apart, such as achieving success in something. They are treated as outcasts or lepers and shunned by the group. Tank Davis seems to resent not being part of the group.
In the past, Tank Davis has said that Turki Al-Sheikh would have to send “two Ferraris” to his front door as a starting point to start negotiations for a fight on one of his cards. That didn’t happen.
“If they want me, they have to send something to my front door … like two Ferraris or something,” Tank Davis said in an interview.
