[4] Davis was convicted of the 1976 murder of 48 year old William Brownell, a man whose body was found battered in his Wilshire district (Los Angeles) apartment.

Most of those victories came against mediocre opposition, the possible exception being a 8-1 prospect named Greg Young, beaten by Davis by first-round knockout at the Sheraton Twin Towers hotel in Orlando, Florida as the main event of a program held on April 18, 1981.

[7] For his next contest, Davis met the 11 wins, 2 losses Armando Ramirez of Los Angeles at the Blaisdell Center Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii.

[8] Now 12–1 after thirteen fights, Davis fought future WBC world Welterweight champion Milton McCrory, 13-0 himself, on June 25, 1981, at the Astrodome in Houston, as part of a program that included a major world-titles double-header featuring Thomas Hearns versus Pablo Baez for Hearns' WBA's world Welterweight championship and Ayub Kalule versus Sugar Ray Leonard for Kalule's WBA world Junior Middleweight championship.

Herrera had also faced Arturo Leon, Frankie Baltazar, Gonzalo Montellano, James "Bubba" Busceme, and Edwin "Chapo" Rosario in his career; Herrera would later meet others such as Jose Luis Ramirez, Julio Cesar Chavez and Sammy Ayala, losing to each of them.

[11] On January 28, 1982, at the Shamrock Hilton Hotel in Houston, Davis beat Herrera by a third-round knockout.

But, after four wins over mostly obscure opposition, he faced a future world champion in Lupe Aquino, as part of a program featuring a main event with Larry Holmes, the WBC world Heavyweight champion, defending his title against challenger Scott Frank.

[17] Still ranked number 1 by the WBC, and being considered their mandatory challenger to world champion Curry despite the loss to Aquino, Davis faced the 2 wins, 3 losses Eduardo Dominguez in what was supposed to be a confidence-rebuilding match for Davis, as part of an undercard which was held at the Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 25, 1983, and which included a fight by Aquino himself and meetings between Ray Mancini and Johnny Torres and Larry Holmes and Marvis Frazier.