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During his final year of
high school at age 18, the Virginia native's anxiety and anger
were so overpowering they landed him in a mental health
facility, where he learned to talk through his problems by
watching even younger children do the same.
Those days are behind him, Davis said, and nothing was going to
stop him from achieving his childhood dream of winning an
Olympic gold medal - what would be the first for U.S. men's
boxing since 2004.
"I'm getting the gold. That's not even a question," Davis said
on Saturday, having just beaten Rio silver medallist Sofiane
Oumiha. The bout ended in a referee stop after Davis landed a
powerful hook that sent the Frenchman wobbling.
"I got no choice but to get gold. I'm going to get gold, and
that's what I'm shooting for, is getting gold."
Davis said that having to go up against a top-seeded boxer in
only his second bout had only worked to fire him up.
"They've given me these tougher opponents early. I feel kind of
disrespected, like they're trying to get me out of the
tournament early," said Davis, who only won his ticket to Tokyo
last month through the International Olympic Committee Boxing
Task Force.
"Or that's just how I take it to motivate myself to go into each
one of these fights. But I don't care if you gave me (Cuban
two-time world champion) Andy Cruz the first day. I was going to
beat him and move on to the next day."
Davis, who plans to resume his professional boxing career after
Tokyo, said his mental health problems are dealt with now but
that the long months of quarantine have been difficult for him,
as they had been for other athletes.
"A lot of people don't know how to deal with quarantine and us
elite athletes travel. We're so busy that we never have time to
deal with ourselves," he said.
"I just hope the best for all these athletes, all these athletes
that came here to compete in the Olympics... I understand
everybody that's going through mental health issues because I've
been through the worst."
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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