Hovhannes Davtyan was born on November 25, 1983, in Leninakan, Armenian SSR (now Gyumri, Armenia).

He began practicing judo at the age of 12 years under his current coach Karen Simonyan.

[1] Davtyan made his debut on the international stage in January 2005 at the World Cup in Tbilisi, where he took fifth place and left without a medal.

A month later, at the next stage of the World Cup, held in Moscow, Davtyan won the gold medal.

In the same year, as part of the Armenia national team, Davtyan went to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

In that year, he gained the necessary ranking points to secure a ticket to the Olympic Games in London in 2012.

After that, at the 2012 European Judo Championships in Chelyabinsk, Davtyan won a silver medal.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Davtyan knocked out German Tobias Englmaier, Azeri Ilgar Mushkiyev and Kazakh Yerkebulan Kossayev.

In the fight for the semi-finals, Davtyan narrowly lost to Italian Elio Verde.

After this, Davtyan had the opportunity to compete for the Olympic bronze medal, but controversially lost to Frenchman Sofiane Milous and took seventh place.