Why do fights between rising stars, including Gervonta Davis, still seem like dreams rather than realities?

The late 2010s and early 2020s saw the emergence of a deep pool of talented fighters from 130 to 135 pounds. Obviously, this set has boxing fans racing with thoughts of all the great fights that could happen in the years to come. Unfortunately, even though boxing has seen an era of high-level matchups and fights to unify championships, very few of those fights have featured young fighters from around the lightweight division joining the ring.

Gervonta “Tank” Davis, Teofimo Lopez, Shakur Stevenson, Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia formed the core of the youth movement around the lightweight division. To date, the only fight between those two fighters was Davis vs. Garcia in early 2023. Davis won the fight by knockout with a shot to the body and the fight did big business at the live gate and payday. per view.

Lopez and Stevenson, both 26, have both claimed to be “retired” at various points in their careers. Lopez claimed he was stepping away from the sport after his most recent fight, scoring a dominant win over former undisputed light welterweight champion Josh Taylor to claim the WBO title at the weight.

Current WBC lightweight and former featherweight and super featherweight champion Stevenson’s own “retirement” was announced on January 23 when the WBO ordered Emmanuel Navarrete to face Denis Berinchik for their vacant title. Stevenson clearly wanted the fight with Navarrete and was disappointed when it did not happen.

While Lopez’s claimed retirement did not stick – he will defend his title against Jaime Ortiz in Las Vegas on Thursday – Stevenson is unlikely to actually walk away from the sport and he reportedly informed the WBC that Have also called that he is not doing this. , actually, retired.

Much of Stevenson’s frustration probably stems from the Navarrete fight promising action, with Stevenson desperately needing to re-establish his image after a disappointing fight against Edwin de los Santos to win the then-vacant WBC belt in November. . In that fight, Stevenson and De los Santos combined to land a total of 33 power punches and De los Santos landed a total of 40, the fewest tracked by CompuBox in a 12-round fight.

Since retiring, Stevenson Targets have been hit.

Meanwhile, Garcia and Haney have been doing boxing’s old “will they, won’t they” dance for months.

In December, Garcia and Haney confirmed that their teams were in contact to try to set up a fight between the two.

Garcia then changed his mind and decided that he would prefer to fight WBA junior welterweight champion Rolando “Rolly” Romero instead. Romero is largely viewed as one of boxing’s weakest champions and Garcia, while a big star, was still looking for his first world championship.

After the Garcia face-off, Bill Haney said, “We thought Ryan was crazy when he raised his hand and said he was going to fight Devin.” “It took everyone by surprise. And then what happened, he went back to being who he is.”

Romero then turned everything around by helping get a proposed Garcia fight for a title defense against Isaac Cruz. This led Garcia into a new round of issues in his years-long feud with his own promoters, particularly Golden Boy Promotions head Oscar De La Hoya. Now, it appears that Garcia may attempt to fight Haney again.

Lopez will fight Ortiz on Thursday in a special highlight of Super Bowl week. In terms of matchmaking, Lopez vs. Ortiz is fine. It’s an internal battle for Lopez against a fighter who pushed Lomachenko to the brink, proving some legitimate skills en route to a narrow decision loss.

When he’s on his game, Lopez has proven to be an elite talent, claiming three lightweight world titles with his win over Lomachenko and dismantling of Taylor a perfect example of how good Lopez really is. It is possible In between was a shocking loss to George Kambosos, with many believing Lopez is a man who struggles mentally.

Lopez is prone to bizarre interviews and intense family drama, including his father and trainer, Teofimo Lopez Sr. Should he get past Ortiz, attention will again turn to a potential bout with Haney to unify the two titles at junior welterweight.

Meanwhile, Haney could be eyeing a fight with Connor Benn. Benn is 23-0 but is still dealing with the results of several failed drug tests ahead of his planned 2023 fight with Chris Eubank Jr.

Following Benn’s victory over Peter Dobson on February 3, Bill Haney said, “Devin is in the position he’s in, Conor has earned the position he’s in and if it can happen, we’ll get it.” “I wouldn’t dismiss Connor or anything he brings to the table, but we have some other things going on and if those things don’t come to fruition, we’ll have to call Connor Benn and his team.”

Interestingly, Davis is also pretending to have a fight with Benn, with both fighters arguing over an X and expressing their desire to make a deal.

The idea of ​​Davis vs. Benn would fit with reports that Davis is eyeing a fight in the United Kingdom for his next outing, although Benn is currently suspended from fighting in his home country after failing drug tests. Is.

Davis has arguably made himself the “face of boxing,” but his resume is still lacking when it comes to fights with the best talents and biggest names, other than the huge event of Davis vs. Garcia. There are plenty of options to improve this but it still remains to be seen what direction Davis’ career takes in the coming years.

That is to say, despite the potential for these young superstars to be involved in an era of big feuds against each other, it seems like those feuds are still more hype than reality.

Will 2024 finally see this golden generation share a ring? Not until the matter goes beyond social media and reaches the negotiating table.

Boxing fans will just have to wait and see if anyone involved can be competitively and financially motivated to do so.