Gervonta Davis may have summer homecoming fight in Baltimore

Baltimore’s Gervonta Davis looks to be headed home to defend the WBA super featherweight title this summer, at least if a series of tweets between himself and Leonard Ellerbe are correct.

Davis (21-0, 20 KO) hasn’t fought in Baltimore since his fourth pro fight back in 2013 on a Keystone Boxing card. He most recently was seen on Feb. 9, knocking out late replacement opponent Hugo Ruiz in just 2:59. That was a Showtime main event, originally intended to be Davis facing Abner Mares, who had to pull out for eye surgery.

Davis won his first title back in 2017, stopping Jose Pedraza in seven to win the IBF belt at 130. He defended against Liam Walsh in London that May, then was stripped for missing weight against Francisco Fonseca in August of that same year.

Instead of moving up, Davis stayed put at super featherweight. He beat Jesus Cuellar for the WBA belt last April before returning to defend in February. He’s had some bumps in the road — on the scale and outside the ring — but is still considered one of boxing’s top young talents.

Baltimore is certainly not a hotbed for pro boxing at the moment, but then neither was Omaha before Terence Crawford got going and was doing impressive crowds there. You can’t do a Vegas or New York gate in those places, but it’s good to have notable fights somewhere else sometimes, too.