NEW YORK – Gervonta Davis isn’t impressed with the unbeaten lightweight champion most boxing fans and pundits would like to see him fight in 2025.

Davis is so disinterested in opposing Shakur Stevenson that the 30-year-old knockout artist extensively talked about retirement for the first time Tuesday during and after a press conference at Barclays Center in Brooklyn to officially announce his WBA lightweight championship match March 1. Turki Alalshikh, who recently took ownership of The Ring, revealed Monday that Stevenson will defend his WBC belt against another undefeated American, Floyd Schofield, on February 22 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Baltimore’s Davis (30-0, 28 KOs), who arrived almost 4½ hours late to his press conference Tuesday, reacted angrily afterward when asked about boxing Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs), a fellow southpaw who relies more on defense and ring generalship than Davis’ vaunted power.

“For what? Like who have Shakur [fought]?,” Davis asked a group of reporters. “What have Shakur done? What have he done in the sport? He haven’t done nothing. The young one is looking more better than him. Keyshawn. Keyshawn [Davis] looking way more better than [Stevenson]. Y’all keep screaming [Stevenson’s name]. He haven’t done nothing. Keyshawn haven’t even done nothing. What the f*ck is y’all keep saying his name for?”

Stevenson, 27, has won world titles in three weight classes. The Newark, New Jersey native is also listed at No. 3 in The Ring’s lightweight ratings.

Keyshawn Davis (12-0, 8 KOs, 1 NC), a 2021 Olympic silver medalist who is ranked No. 5 by The Ring, enhanced expectations by demolishing Argentinean veteran Gustavo Lemos (29-2, 19 KOs) in the second round November 8 at Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia, Davis’ hometown. Keyshawn Davis, 25, has been mentored by Stevenson since he was an amateur, thus they aren’t expected to fight unless their purses make it unavoidable.

Stevenson, an Olympic silver medalist in 2016, hasn’t exactly endeared himself to boxing fans with either of his last two performances – a pair of 12-round, unanimous-decision victories over Dominican southpaw Edwin De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs) and Germany’s Artem Harutyunyan (12-2, 7 KOs). Stevenson-De Los Santos was particularly dull, though Stevenson revealed in its aftermath that he endured injuries to his left hand and right shoulder that hindered how he fought against De Los Santos in November 2023 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The safer strategies Stevenson employed to beat De Los Santos and Harutyunyan hurt the marketability of a showdown with Gervonta Davis, who turned his attention to a long-discussed fight against another three-division champ, Vasiliy Lomachenko, The Ring’s second-ranked lightweight. Once the 36-year-old Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs), who owns the IBF lightweight title, walked away from a nearly finalized deal to face Davis on November 2 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Davis turned his attention to Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs).

Roach, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, is an amateur rival who narrowly lost both of their two fights to Gervonta Davis in 2011. The 29-year-old Roach also owns the WBA super featherweight title Davis once held.

Roach has moved up from the 130-pound division, within which The Ring rates him No. 5, to the lightweight limit of 135 pounds for this fight. Davis scoffed at the suggestion of a reporter Tuesday that this choice could cause critics to suggest he is “afraid” to face Stevenson.

“Afraid of what?,” an incredulous Davis asked. “Afraid of what? Us fighters, if we afraid of someone, it gotta be somebody hittin’ us and hurtin’ us. Like, he don’t throw – he don’t have no offense. Everything is defense. Defense only win in basketball and football. That sh*t don’t win in boxing.”

Stevenson will make his second defense of the WBC lightweight title when he opposes Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs), of Austin, Texas, on the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol undercard February 22. The official opening odds on Stevenson-Schofield are closer (8-1) than those on Davis-Roach (16-1).