By Keith Idec

Gervonta Davis previously resisted training away from Baltimore.

Floyd Mayweather Jr., Davis’ promoter, has repeatedly tried to have Davis train regularly at Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas. It took losing his 130-pound championship for failing to make weight before his last fight to convince Davis to train away from his hometown.

The undefeated Davis has been preparing for his upcoming match in West Palm Beach, Florida, alongside Adrien Broner.

Davis and Broner both have been trained for their April 21 bouts by Kevin Cunningham, best known for his work with former welterweight champions Devon Alexander and Cory Spinks. Before Cunningham agreed to work with him, Davis had been trained throughout his five-year pro career by Calvin Ford, who also has been a father figure for Davis.

The 23-year-old Davis and Ford remain close. Davis believes, though, that switching sites for this training camp has helped his preparation for a 12-round fight against Argentina’s Jesus Cuellar for a version of the WBA’s super featherweight title a week from Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“I was actually going to go to Colorado to train,” Davis said, according to a press release issued Wednesday. “But Adrien invited me to come down here to West Palm Beach to check out the camp. He said I should come to Florida to train with him and Kevin. So I came down, I saw Kevin’s routine and I really liked it.

“There were a lot of distractions in Baltimore and I think they were a problem for me. I needed to straighten my head and focus on the things I have to work on. It was time to set my camp somewhere else.”

The strong southpaw couldn’t get lower than 132 pounds for his 130-pound title defense against Francisco Fonseca on the Mayweather-Conor McGregor undercard August 26 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The IBF stripped him of the super featherweight title he won two fights earlier, but Davis knocked out Costa Rica’s Fonseca (21-1-1, 15 KOs) in the eighth round.

Davis hasn’t fought since defeating Fonseca 7½ months ago.

“I needed a change after my last fight,” Davis said. “I let myself down. I learned to be a different fighter, more responsible. I let others down, but think I let myself down more than anything.”

Showtime will air the 12-round, 130-pound title bout between Davis (19-0, 18 KOs) and Cuellar (28-2, 21 KOs) as part of a tripleheader April 21 from Barclays Center.

Cincinnati’s Broner (33-3, 24 KOs, 1 NC) will square off against Las Vegas’ Jessie Vargas (28-2, 10 KOs) in the 12-round, 144-pound main event that night. The three-bout broadcast also will feature Houston’s Jermall Charlo (26-0, 20 KOs) against Hugo Centeno Jr. (26-1, 14 KOs, 1 NC), of Oxnard, California, in a 12-round fight for the WBC’s interim middleweight title.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.