Gervonta Davis was too much for Ryan Garcia
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Staff Reports, Staff reports
- April 23, 2023
Gervonta Davis declares himself the face of boxing
Gervonta Davis smiled mischievously and approvingly after Jim Gray asked him if he considered himself the face of boxing. Minutes after dispatching Ryan Garcia with a devastating body shot, Tank loved the question Saturday night.
Davis, a powder keg of raw power, made a strong case after winning one of the most anticipated fights in years. If not the face of boxing, the lightweight champion at least belongs in the conversation.
“I’m definitely the face of boxing,” Davis told Gray while smiling widely. “Abso (expletive) lutely!”
At 28, Davis proved too strong, too powerful and too experienced for Garcia, 24. He ended the fight with a vicious straight left hand to Garcia’s body in the seventh round.
Gervonta Davis too strong for Garcia
Garcia retreated after the blow and then took a knee about two seconds later. He refused to get back up before referee Thomas Taylor counted him out at the 1:44 mark of the seventh round.
“I was close to getting up, for sure,” Garcia told the media after the fight. “I mean, I ain’t got no excuses, I just couldn’t get up.”
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Mexico’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez may still have a claim for the title as the “face of boxing.” Gervonta Davis is in that conversation, though.
Tank Davis, a three-time, five-division champion from Baltimore, is as charismatic as he is overpowering. Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) delivered for the SHOWTIME PPV audience and the sellout crowd of 20,842 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
Garcia appeared game but too inexperienced for Davis, who sent him to the mat twice.
“It was no shots that caught me today and I felt like I was in trouble,” Davis said in the post-fight press conference. “I just stayed calm. I felt like he was more anxious than me.
“When you have somebody like that you want to stay calm at all costs because you don’t want to make a bad decision.”
Vicious knockdown in the second round
Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) definitely paid for his poor decisions. Both fighters appeared to feel each other out in the first round. The pace picked up in the second round with the 5-foot-8 Garcia mounting pressure against the 5-foot-5 ½ Davis.
Unfortunately for Garcia, he paid for his impetuous approach.
Davis ducked under Garcia’s left hook and then crushed him with a menacing left hook. The blow sent Garcia to the mat, accounting for only the second time Garcia had been knocked down over 24 professional fights.
Garcia was never the same. Five rounds later, Davis ended the fight. It appeared as though Garcia would get back up to continue the fight in the seventh, but he didn’t.
“He has great power,” Garcia said. “You just have to be careful with Gervonta and play it smart. I didn’t play it smart. I started getting bored in there and I just started trying to press and I ended up getting knocked out. That was my mistake.”
Staff Reports
Staff reports
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