It's a question on everyone's mind and it must be exhausting to be asked repeatedly what it's like to be the next Thomas Hearns, but 23-year-old Davel Smith answers each question with grace.
“Yeah, it's a little bittersweet,” said Smith, an 8-0 pro out of Kronk Gym with a Hearns-esque right hand. “I'm happy because Tommy Hearns is the greatest fighter to come out of Michigan outside of Floyd Mayweather and Claressa Shields, and I'm honored that people see me at that level. They might put a limit on me, if you will, but that's the limit for me. That's the limit, so I want to try to surpass Tommy Hearns. I want to be the best I can be, but it's all about showing the world who I am.”
That's exactly what you want to hear from a young fighter when asked what is essentially a deep question. There is and always will be only one “Hitman,” but the middleweight prospect from Michigan has a golden opportunity to become the first Davel Smith, and that's all he wants.
And before long, patience seems to be a virtue for Smith, and he finds it easy to trust the process.
“Actually, it's not difficult for me at all,” he said. “I believe if you're patient and wait for things to happen, a lot of good things will happen.”
Being a father helps me to be patient.
“Yeah, for sure,” he said with a laugh. “Then it's life experience. When you rush things, they don't turn out the way you expected or wanted them to. But usually if you work hard and are patient, things usually work out. So I'm just focused on training hard and getting better and better, so when the time comes for the big fight I'll be ready.”
At this point, with more and more people talking about the next Hearns coming out of Cronk, every fight is a big one because his opponent knows beating the highly-touted youngster around him might be his ticket to the next level of recognition and reward. But in another sign of Smith's maturity, he wears earplugs when he listens to the growing rumors around him.
“My name has gotten a little bit more known these last few games, but I'm still not sure how well known I really am,” he said.
That's a good thing, because it means he's focused on the right things, not on getting likes on Instagram, so when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and he had to put his amateur career on hold, he kept on working.
“Before the pandemic hit, I was training with Sugar Hill,” he said, “and I was going for the Golden Globes in 2020, but then everything got canceled and I had to take a year off, maybe a year and a half.”
But it wasn't a time to chill with Netflix.
“I built a gym in my garage around that time,” Smith says, “and bought punching bags, jump ropes and all kinds of training equipment and tried to keep myself competitive.”
Once the world started moving again, Smith decided to turn pro, and on Sept. 17, 2021, he did just that, stopping Ricky Evans in under two minutes. In that moment, he realized there was something about his right-handed fastball that made him better than most.
“The funny thing is, I never thought I had the power that I have,” Smith said, “But in my first fight, I knocked a guy out. He was asleep in the ropes and I looked at myself in the mirror and I was like, 'I really did it.' It was unbelievable to me. Then in my next fight, I took him down with almost the same shot, no problem. Sometimes you don't even hit the punch hard. You just hit it and he goes down. So from there it was like, yeah, I have the power.”
And he's carrying Kronk's magical gold trunk next to him, which, in case you were wondering, still means something in Detroit.
“This represents the city of Detroit and my gym,” he says. “This represents everyone behind this gym. When I put these trunks on and look at myself in the mirror, I'm ready to go.”
Even in town, when locals see him holding tools from a house that Emanuel Steward built, there is an automatic respect.
“I was pumping gas at the gas station today and people were paying attention,” he said. “They saw me with my Kronk shirt on and I was just doing my normal thing at the grocery store or gas station and people were like, 'Oh, you fight at Kronk's gym?' In fact, when I told them I'm a boxer, the first thing they asked me was, 'You fight at Kronk's gym?' So when people here think of boxing, they think of Kronk, just like when people here think of basketball, they think of the Pistons and when they think of football, they think of the Lions.”
Emanuel would be proud, not just because a new generation is representing Cronk, but because those who are, like Smith, are doing it the right way: the Detroit way.
“It takes hunger, grit and determination,” Smith said when asked what it means to be a Detroit fighter. “It takes the Detroit passion. As a Detroit fighter coming from a great gym, it's just an honor to be compared to the legendary fighters that came out of there. There are so many great fighters that have come out of Detroit, and to be on that list and work your way up is a great feeling, but I'd like to keep working hard and hopefully make it to the top of that list.”
