Gervonta Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) and Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) They will have the attention of the entire boxing world when they meet this Saturday for the World Boxing Association lightweight title at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
A fundamental part of Gervonta Davis’s career has been her coach, Calvin Ford58 years old, who has been with him since the Baltimore native began his career as a boxer.
During the 1980s, Ford was a drug dealer in Baltimore. Thus, he spent 10 years incarcerated in a federal prison for racketeering and his only activities were boxing and cooking. After leaving prison, he dedicated his life to training children so that they would not make the same mistakes as him.
Herring Run Recreational Centerlater renamed the Upton Boxing Center, it was where Ford met Davis when he was seven years old and promised to keep him off the streets and out of jail. ‘Tank’s childhood was not easy since he was raised by his grandmother since his mother was a drug addict and his father was in prison.
Davis is one of Ford’s success stories, since other boxers under his care have been assassinated such as Ronald Gibbs, in 2011; Angelo Ward, in 2012; and Quaadir Gurley in 2013.
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Ford inspired a fictional character
The creators of the series’The Wire‘ were detectives from the Baltimore police investigating the Ford gang and that inspired the existence of the character Dennis ‘Cutty’ Wiseplayed by Chad L. Coleman.