By Perry Green
AFRO Sports Editor
Gervontae “Tank” Davis, 14, is one of the top amateur boxers in Baltimore City, thanks in part to the coaches Calvin Ford (left) and Mack Allison. (AFRO Photo/Perry Green)
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(September 3, 2009) - If you’re a boxing fan, you may want to remember this name: Gervontae “Tank” Davis.
At just 14 years old, Davis is already one of the top trainees at Upton Boxing Gym in West Baltimore, and those closest to him say he’s set for a meteoric rise in the sport.
“This kid is so blessed with talent,” said Calvin Ford, one of the most respected boxing coaches at Upton Gym. “There really is no limit to how far he can go in this sport and in life.”
Davis has been training with Ford at Upton since he was 7 years old and the young boxing champion recently showed why his years of training have been particularly fruitful.
After fighting through four different opponents, Davis earned the 112-pound Silver Gloves Championship during the Ringside Tournament in Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 13-15.
Davis beat his opponents by working his left straight-hand and connecting with his right hook whenever clean-hit opportunities were available. He also stayed on the move, making him a defensive threat and a hard-to-hit target.
Tank will attempt to repeat his Kansas City success when he travels to Texas for the PAL Boxing Tournament on Oct. 18. Until then, he’ll continue to train five days a week with Ford and coach Mack Allison, whom Davis credits for his boxing skills. But according to Ford, Davis will learn about more than boxing in the near future.
“Right now, we’ve been focusing on building Tank’s attitude so that he’ll be properly prepared for the outside world,” Ford said. “Coach Mack and I want Tank to be mentally prepared for whatever life may offer, because we’re not going to be able to guide him everywhere.”
With the right attitude in place, Davis hopes to be successful outside of the ring as well. An animal enthusiast, the up-and-coming boxing standout hopes to be a veterinarian one day, although his immediate goals are strongly rooted in boxing. He plans to try out for the 2012 Olympics, but his mentors won’t be there to advise him from the corner if he overcomes the rigorous preliminary challenges.
“That’s why we’re trying to get him to a strong mental level now, so that when his career starts to escalade and he starts to work with other coaches, he’ll still be just as productive for them as he is for us,” Ford said. “Because once we see him in the Olympics fighting well, or doing anything else productive in life, we can say we did our job.”