Mayweather protege Gervonta Davis charged with domestic BATTERY over courtside manhandling of ex-girlfriend (VIDEO)

Floyd Mayweather Jr protege and world champion boxer Gervonta Davis has been arrested and charged with domestic battery over viral footage of him manhandling his ex-girlfriend at a celebrity basketball game in Florida.

Davis has seemingly taken after his mentor a little too much; the Baltimore, Maryland, fighter is seen in the footage, taken on February 1, yanking the woman - also the mother of his child - up from her chair by her jacket and bustling her towards an exit by her throat.

Current WBA lightweight title holder Davis is now subject to one count of "simple battery domestic violence" after surrendering to Coral Gables Police Department in Florida.

Twenty-five-year-old Davis is an undefeated rising star in the world of boxing; he is undefeated and has won 22 of his 23 career victories by way of knockout, and has spent the majority of his career under the tutelage of Floyd Mayweather Jr.

"I never once hit her ... yeah I was aggressive and told her come on," Davis said in a statement over the weekend, TMZ reported. "That's the mother of my child. I would never hurt her."

Nicknamed ‘Tank’, Davis is also the former IBF and WBA super featherweight ruler and is being lined up for a potential shot at Ukrainian pound for pound star Vasily Lomachenko.

Getty / Alex Pantling

Undefeated former boxing champ Mayweather was sentenced to 90 days imprisonment in 2012 on misdemeanor battery charges relating to an assault against his then-girlfriend. 

Mayweather had previously been convicted of the same charge in 2002 and received a one-year suspended jail sentence for a 2004 assault against two women.