Ryan Garcia on mega fight with Tank Davis: 'I willed it to happen'
Young, undefeated stars meet Saturday in biggest fight of the year
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When Ryan Garcia and Gervonta “Tank” Davis finally step into the ring for what, at least right now, is easily the biggest fight of the year, it will be the culmination of a long road to a showdown that began as a glimmer in Garcia’s mind about two years ago.
There were many bumps along the road to getting the deal done but the one person who remained committed to the fight, a 12-rounder that will take place at a contract weight of 136 pounds on Saturday (Showtime PPV and PPV.com, 8 p.m. ET, $84.99) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, was Garcia.
He more or less willed it into existence because he simply would not let it go.
“I always envisioned that this would be my first huge fight that I would have in my career,” Davis told Fight Freaks Unite. “This would be the first moment that could define my career and I’ve always kind of chased that because inside I had this intuition that I knew this would be the fight and he knew it too. He said it a long time ago and he felt the same thing and I guess through time he didn’t want to use anyone’s name. I think that’s a tactic of his. He doesn’t say any names.
“But for me, I was just so hungry for this that I was always advocating this fight to happen. Not only did I want it to happen, the fans wanted to happen. Everybody wanted it to happen. All the comments (to me were), ‘When you gonna fight ‘Tank?’ So, I already knew this is where it was going and, yes, I willed it to happen because — and not that he was avoiding it — but they made it very difficult for me to say yes. All I know is I never gave them a reason to say no and now we’re here and I’m ready to go.”
Indeed, Garcia never gave Davis an excuse to get out of the fight:
He took the short end of the money and B-side billing.
Garcia, promoter Golden Boy and their broadcast partner DAZN agreed that Showtime, which works with Davis and Premier Boxing Champions, would put on the fight.
Garcia, who has been fighting at 140 pounds, also agreed to drop to 136 to satisfy the smaller Davis, who holds a secondary title in the 135-pound lightweight division.
Further, Garcia also agreed to a re-hydration clause, which does not allow him (or Davis) to gain more than 10 pounds prior to a weight check on the morning of the fight. If either man is over 146 pounds at that weight check there are severe financial penalties, according to sources.
“We started, I believe, at 138 and it started going down,” Garcia said of how they arrived at the unusual catch weight for the nontitle fight. “He would say, ‘No, we gotta do it at 137.’ Then a week later, ‘No, we gotta do it at 136.’ That’s how it got to that number. I said I’m not going any lower. I’m just not. I’m not giving him a way out of this. I’m gonna to it (at 136).
“My mentality is I don’t care what anyone throws at me. When I really want something I find a way to make it happen. I’m not dumb. I know I can make the weight and I can be strong. It’s just discipline. I’ve seen worse weight cuts than this. I’ve done worse weight cuts.”
Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs), 24, of Victorville, California, did say, however, that Davis’ insistence that they keep shaving pounds off irritated him.
“I just don’t like a guy’s character like that,” Davis said. “I’ve already accepted so many other things and you keep on adding other things and I’m like, ‘Come on man, at what point do you say to yourself let’s just get it on already like real fighters? Why you looking for every advantage?’ I lost a little respect (for him). I’m like, ‘Come on man, we’re fighters. Let’s just get it on. Stop with this I need every advantage in the book just to fight.’”
The re-hydration clause became an issue in the late going of the negotiations but Garcia said he was simply not going to allow the fight to blow up, not after working to get it made for so long.
“I was just disappointed,” Garcia said of the re-hydration clause. “Oh, my gosh. They’re like you gotta do it. If you don’t do it they don’t want to fight. It was just another thing I sucked up and was like, alright let’s go. Whatever. You don’t want me to fucking gain 10 pounds to 11? Fine. The only thing I wouldn’t let them touch is my gloves or the type of shoes I wear. Other than that let’s fucking go. I’m just disappointed a little bit. I just thought to myself I don’t know if (he’s) terrified or this is just your character.”
Even before he got down to the details with Davis (28-0, 26 KOs), a 28-year-old southpaw, there was strife within Garcia’s own team. He had a had a hard time getting on the same page with Golden Boy as it related to going on Showtime and other elements of the deal but, again, Garcia was focused on getting it done at any cost.
“It’s difficult because you no longer feel in control of your career at times,” he said of those difficult internal discussions. “You feel like ‘I really want this to happen’ and then everybody is discouraged and everybody believes it’s not going to happen at times and you feel like you wasted months and months of trying to make it happen, and it really had me down.
“I was like, man, this is ridiculous. I didn’t take a fight in October like I wanted to. There was lot of things I had to overcome mentally just to stay hopeful and the stars aligned and it ended up happening. It was pretty tough to go through that.”
Even when the fight was agreed to — although still not signed — Davis insisted on an interim fight, which he won by ninth-round knockout to retain his lightweight belt against junior lightweight titlist Hector Luis Garcia (no relation to Ryan) on Jan. 7.
Garcia was lined up for his own interim bout against Mercito Gesta later in January but eventually opted out of it — another clash with his own team — so as not to risk anything getting in the way the big fight with Davis.
But even after Davis made it safely through his interim fight and came away uninjured, there was yet another hurdle in the way as the two sides were busy exchanging contract drafts.
Davis still had to deal with a criminal case against him in his hometown of Baltimore related to a Nov. 5, 2020 incident in which Davis left the scene of a car accident after driving a 2020 Lamborghini Uris SUV through a red light and hit the passenger side of another car, injuring four people, including a pregnant woman.
On Feb. 16, Davis pleaded guilty to four charges in the case but would be available for the fight because his sentencing is not scheduled until May 5.
“I didn’t get too nervous but there was a level of concern about are his legal problems gonna stop the fight from happening? What is this,” Garcia said. “They comforted me with the fact that it wasn’t gonna affect the fight. And then when he was fighting Hector Garcia, I said, OK, I’ve seen Hector fight. He shouldn’t cause Tank any problems but anything can happen.
“That’s the reason why I didn’t take my fight, because I could hurt my hand. I worked five to six months on the fight and there was no way I was going to risk that. Maybe he can, but this means more to me than probably him because I wasn’t risking it.”
In the end, Garcia very badly wanted the fight as a way to earn respect from the many who view him as little more than a social media pretty boy — with 9.5 million followers on Instagram — instead of a serious fighter, despite a decorated amateur career, several quality pro wins and having won the WBC interim lightweight title by knockout of longtime contender and Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell in 2021.
“Yes, yes. This is the fight to do it,” Garcia said of getting respect. “That’s why this fight means so much to me. It’s bigger than just this fight. It’s something I’ve been dealing with since I was a young boy. This has a lot attached to it. I don’t want to lose this fight. I don’t. I’m making sure no stone is unturned.
“I’m making sure I’m doing every singe thing possible to win this fight. I want this more than anything I’ve wanted.”
Photos: Ryan Hafey/PBC
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I was pleased to get an email letting me know as a DAZN subscriber I could purchase the fight for $60 rather than $85. That certainly helps me out a little bit and gives me some kind of benefit for being with them since they got started.
I am a big fan of Ryan Garcia and I hope he wins but my head tells me his chin won’t stand up to Davis punches Davis by knockout