Accusing Canelo of Ducking Benavidez, Curmel Moton Reveals Why He Excluded Gervonta Davis From His Top 5 List

Is Curmel Moton being petty with Gervonta Davis? After all, the lightweight champion dropped him from the June 15 Gervonta Davis–Frank Martin event co-headlined by David Benavidez and Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Moton’s last entry into the ring was for his third professional bout against Anthony Cuba on March 30 under the PBC-Amazon Prime’s newly minted relationship. Being an undercard fighter for his second big live event on the paid subscription giant’s watchlist would have surely boosted Curmel’s star power, but it wasn’t to be. Now, a snub has been met with a snub. Davis doesn’t feature in Moton’s top five active fighters list. He seems to have valid reasons, but fans can’t help but speculate that “another man’s ideology” has tainted his judgment.

But the teenage prodigy of the Mayweather camp has reassured boxing fans that this wasn’t the case. In fact, he acknowledged that Gervonta Davis is the ‘face of boxing’. But Davis doesn’t have one achievement that almost all the boxers in his list have, barring one. Enter David Benavidez, a worthy champion who super-middleweight Canelo Alvarez still hasn’t fought. So, why did Moton, who was once a stablemate with Davis in the Floyd camp, decide to not have ‘Tank’ on his top five list?

Personal bitterness or sound judgment?

Is it the feeling of betrayal that drove the 18-year-old boxer to drop Davis from the top five active fighters list? Well, Curmel doesn’t think so! Let’s go through the list first. A boxing fan asked on X, “top 5 active boxers right now?” To which Moton replied, “Usyk, bud, inoue, canelo, benavidez.”

Miffed by the fact that Davis doesn’t feature in Moton’s top five list, another fan opined, “C’mon young G, you looked up to Tank at one point – don’t be mendacious & say otherwise. Tank’s performance on Saturday, really establishes that he’s on his way to become a ‘Hall of Fame Great’. Don’t be induced by another man’s ideology, that’s their own ting.”

In response, Moton gave his justification for his pick of fighters, pointing out the “undisputed status” of at least four pugilists, that the Baltimore native still didn’t achieve. As for why Benavidez is on the list, Curmel says that he is a fighter that Canelo Alvarez, the undisputed super-middleweight champion, has been “ducking”.

While acknowledging that Tank is the “top dog” in the lightweight division, he replied, “He the face of boxing and has just as much skills as any one on the list. The rest of them were or are undisputed champs and I feel like canelo is ducking David so I put him at five. Everybody know tank is like that.”

It must be pointed out that the 29-year-old boxer and 3-division champion has still not unified all four major belts in any of the weight categories he fought in. There have been accusations from some quarters that he has been ducking elite-level fighters. Even in the lightweight category, Gervonta didn’t face Devin Haney, who was the undisputed champion in the division till last year. It remains to be seen, after his spectacular lightweight title defense against Frank Martin, if Davis wishes to unify the belts in the lightweight division and go up against elite fighters like WBC champion Shakur Stevenson, IBF champion: Vasyl Lomachenko, and WBO champion Denys Berinchyk.

Meanwhile, at least four fighters in Curmel’s list have achieved legendary status with accolades worthy of being a P4P king. Oleksandr Usyk became two-division undisputed champion at Cruiserweight and Heavyweight after his win over Tyson Fury in May this year. Terence Crawford had also achieved undisputed status in two divisions: Light Welterweight and Welterweight after his victory over Errol Spence last year.

On the other hand, Naoya Inoue, the knockout artist from Japan, has won all four belts in the bantamweight and super-bantamweight divisions. Last but not least, the Mexican legend Canelo Alvarez became the undisputed super-middleweight champion by defeating Caleb Plant in 2021. As for the 3-0 boxer’s fifth pick, well, Canelo did put an astronomical price tag of $200 million on the fight with Benavidez. Is Canelo scared? Could be anybody’s guess!

Meanwhile, did Davis just make his first move to unify the belts in the lightweight division?

Is Shakur next?

After a successful KO finish of Frank Martin, Gervonta Davis gave his verdict on the possible matchup against WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson at the post-match press conference. “You know how it would go, everybody in this room knows how it would go,” Davis said, with an air of superiority.

“I guess it would be good for the sport if we fight,” he concluded. Despite Davis’ words, Shakur needs to prove himself first before even thinking of procuring a fight against the former. After all, money talks in boxing. If his upcoming bout turns out to be a snooze fest like the Edwin De Los Santos fight, it might prevent the matchmakers from making the Davis-Stevenson fight. So, ‘Sugar’s’ fight against Artem Harutyunyan will be the ultimate ‘litmus test’ for his fortune in the lightweight division.

Nevertheless, what do you think of Moton’s decision to keep Davis out of his top-five list? Did Moton’s proximity with Floyd Mayweather, who is currently beefing with Gervonta Davis, have any influence on his decision? Let us know in the comment section below.