A Father-Figure, Mother’s Love

Bob Davis introduced a 10-year-old Terrell Gausha to boxing at the Glenville Recreation Center in Cleveland, stepping in two years after the youngster’s father, Melton, died of heart failure. 

Deprived of a male role model to help him navigate the crime-ridden neighborhood, Gausha’s mother, Taretha Jones, instilled discipline and perseverance in the 2005 graduate of Glenville High School.

“I missed time with my father,” said Gausha, whose name is of French, Creole, descent and has a 12-year-old daughter, Ty’era, a five-month old son, Jaylen. 

“My mother was a great example working 32 years at Chrysler starting at the age of 19 before retiring. Bob Davis came and got me every day, took me to church, taught me about life.”Under Davis’ tutelage Gausha became a five-time Cleveland Golden Gloves Champion, a two-time national champion and a 2005 graduate of Glenville High School (which later produced Ohio State’s NCAA title-winning quarterback Cardale Jones).

Before passing of an illness in 2015, Davis guided Gausha to an amateur record of 158-16 as he went on to represent the United States in the 2012 Olympics in London. 

At the Olympics, Gausha scored a third-round knockout over Armenia’s Andranik Hakobyan in the first round of the games before being eliminated, 16-15, by India’s Vijender Singh, a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist.

PAYING HOMAGE

Gausha won his first seven bouts at weights between 164 ¼ and 158 over the course of 2012 and 2013, going 7-0 with five knockouts and comprising a 6-0 mark with four stoppages during the latter year.

Dustin Caplinger suffered a two-knockdown, second-round stoppage in November 2012 at the hands of Gausha, who registered a first-round TKO of Kenny Taylor Schmitz in January 2013.

In succession, Gausha earned four-round unanimous decisions over Lekan Byfield (February) and William Waters (April) before stopping Austin Marcum (August), Bruce Runkle (September) and Andres Calixto Rey (November) in the second, first and first rounds. 

Gausha went 6-0 with two KOs in 2014, stringing together a pair of eight-round unanimous decisions over George Sosa (February) and Charles Whittaker (April) before winning a one-knockdown, 10-round shutout over James Winchester (June).

The year included Gausha’s six-round unanimous decision over Juan Carlos Rojas (September) separating stoppages in the first- and eighth-rounds of southpaw Ronnie Warrior Jr. (July) and Cesar Vila (December), the latter of whom was floored in the final round. 

A second-round TKO of veteran Norberto Gonzalez (March) began a 4-0 campaign in 2015 for Gausha, who followed up with a pair of eight-round unanimous decisions over Luis Grajeda (June) and Eliezer Gonzalez (September) as well as a 10-round shutout of Said El Harrak (December).

Norberto Gonzalez and Grajeda represented back-to-back appearances at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for Gausha, who scored one knockdown in each of the four victories during the year of Davis’ passing. 

“I’ve always paid homage to my coach. Bob Davis taught me principles,” said Gausha, who credits Davis for saving his life. “He taught me to channel my anger, frustrations, energy and helped me to believe in myself.”

A LESSON IN LOSING

Gausha’s next two victories were majority and unanimous decisions over Steve Martinez (August 2016) and Luis Hernandez (February 2017), which followed a seventh-round stoppage of Orlando Lora (April 2016). 

That set up a title shot with then-154-pound champion Erislandy Lara, a Cuban southpaw whose fourth-round knockdown paced him to a one-sided, 12-round unanimous decision over Gausha. 

“Fighting Lara was a good thing for me and I felt good going into it, but I have no excuses,” said Gausha, who slipped to 20-1 with nine knockouts in defeat. 

“I trained well but Lara just outclassed me to be honest. But I learned something, so, for me, it was not really like a loss but a lesson. I went back to the drawing board, changed a few things and bounced back.”

Gausha rebounded with a 160-pound, first-round knockout of left-hander Joey Hernandez in December 2018 before losing a disputed 10-round split-decision to left-handed former champion Austin Trout in May 2019.

“With Hernandez, I requested and faced another southpaw.  I knocked him out in one round. I didn’t expect to win that fight the way that I did, but it really felt good. Trout was a good fight to test myself because he had been around the block,” said Gausha. 

“Trout had fought a lot of good fighters, including beating Miguel Cotto and fighting Lara and Canelo. I felt like I dominated that fight and fought going forward, later starting to box. I didn’t’ get the decision, but at the end of the day I felt like I showed people what they needed to see and proved that I deserved to be where I am.”

On September 19, 2020, Gausha took on Erickson Lubin in a WBC World Super Welterweight Title Eliminator. Gausha had his moments but came up short, losing a 12-round unanimous decision.

BACK IN THE SADDLE

Gausha followed up the loss to Lubin with the finest performance of his pro career. On March 13, 2021, he took on Jamontay Clark on a PBC on SHOWTIME card from Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. 

It what was expected to be a 50-50 fight going in. That was not the case once the bell rang. Gausha made short work of Clark, countering a left cross from the southpaw with a beautiful right hand that floored Clark for the first time in his career. Clark beat the count but moments later was met by a barrage of unanswered punches in the neutral corner. Referee Arthur Mercante jumped in and called a halt to the bout at 2:44 of the second round.

“I know I made a statement tonight,” said Gausha. “I put the division on notice. I’m locked and loaded and I’m ready. I want to be a world champion so I’m looking to fight whoever I need to fight to get to the belts.”

Gausha would lose some momentum in his next bout. On March 26, 2022, unbeaten rising star Tim Tszyu made a successful U.S. debut with a unanimous decision victory over Gausha live on SHOWTIME from The Armory in Minneapolis headlining a Premier Boxing Champions event. 

The son of Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu, Tszyu (21-0, 15 KOs) faced adversity early in his stateside debut as Gausha (22-3-1, 11 KOs) landed a perfect straight right hand that sent Tszyu to the mat in the opening round. Tszyu bounced back onto his feet but was sporting a cut under his left eye for the remainder of the frame. 

“I felt that I had him in trouble after the knockdown,” said Gausha. “I tried to jump on him but he’s a tough fighter. I take my hat off to him. He came prepared. I was ready for 12 hard rounds too. I think I got a little too excited and I tried to jump on him. But he was in shape so he recovered pretty good. He just pressed the action. That’s what he does. I knew he was going to come like that and we trained hard for that.”

Gausha had success with that same straight right hand throughout the fight, but Tszyu’s constant pressure slowly began to wear Gausha down, first hurting him with body shots in round four. Tszyu followed that up in round five by hurting Gausha with an overhand right that forced Gausha to look to hold throughout the rest of the round. A native of Rockdale, Australia, Tszyu was able to stay in control with a relentless body attack, landing 93 body shots compared to 29 from Gausha, according to CompuBox. Tszyu stayed close to Gausha throughout the action, eating the occasional counter right hand in order to land his 207 power punches, which outpaced Gausha’s 106. 

Gausha remained game until the last bell, landing enough shots to keep Tszyu from overwhelming him, but was not able to turn the tide on the judges’ cards. After 12 rounds, the judges all saw the fight for Tszyu, with scores of 116-111, 115-112 and 14-113. 

In March 2023, Gausha returned with a vengeance, stopping Brandyn Lynch in the ninth round of their match at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California. He followed that up an eight-round majority decision over KeAndrae Leatherwood in September 2023. However, on June 15, 2024, Gausha suffered a setback in a world title bid, dropping a 12-round unanimous decision to WBC Middleweight World Champion Carlos Adames.