By Aragon Garcia: Floyd Mayweather Jr. says if Ryan Garcia wants a fight against Gervonta ‘Tank Davis, then he needs to face unbeaten TMT fighter Rolando Romero, and defeat him first before he’ll give him that match. If Ryan is successful in defeating the 23-year-old lightweight prospect Romero (7-0, 6 KO), Mayweather states that he’ll give him $200,000 cash. Garcia reportedly wants $1 million after he beats Romero, according to Michael Benson.
That’s a good amount of money for Ryan to be given to help make Mayweather’s little known prospect Romero a little more popular. Mayweather wants Ryan Garcia to help put Romero on the map to get him some badly needed publicity. If Mayweather is willing to give Ryan the $1 million that he’s asking for to face and beat Romero, then he might go ahead and do it. Mayweather would have to see Romero as someone worth putting that kind of money into. Does Romero have a future or he another one of Mayweather’s fighters that are heading nowhere fast?
“He sure as heck don’t. He’s going to get f—-ed up,” Mayweather said to TMZ about Ryan Garcia being interested in fighting Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis. “Ryan Garcia, you know what I’m going to do? Ryan Garcia says he wants to fight ‘Tank.’ Well, I’m putting the money up right now. If Ryan Garcia can beat Rollie [lightweight prospect Rolando Romero], I’m going to give him $200,000 cash, if he beats Rollie. Now once he loses to Rollie, I don’t want to hear him ever say Tank’s name again. If he [Ryan Garcia] can get through Rollie, he can get to Tank,” Mayweather said.
What the boxing fans want to know is why won’t Mayweather let Garcia, 20, fight Tank Davis without having to earn the fight by facing an unknown fighter like Romero? Does Mayweather lack confidence in Davis (21-0, 20 KOs) that he can get the job done against Garcia? It sure sounds like it, doesn’t it? Why doesn’t Mayweather believe Tank Davis can handle Garcia? Maybe he’s seen too much of Ryan G, and he knows what he can do to his fighter Davis. Garcia (17-0, 14 KOs) is pegged as a future world champion by many in the boxing world.
Trained by the Reynosos, the same trainers that coach WBA/WBC middleweight champion Saul Canelo Alvarez, Garcia is heading towards world title honors in the near future. Mayweather might be kicking himself later if he passes up the opportunity of letting Gervonta to fight Ryan (17-0, 14 KOs) before he’s become a huge superstar in boxing. Once Garcia is a star, he might not give Gervonta the time a day.
Garcia has blazing hand speed, and excellent boxing skills already for a fighter only 20. At 5’10”, Garcia have a tremendous size advantage over the 5’5″ Tank Davis when/if that fight ever happens. Romero, 5’8″, has good size too, but he’s not in the same class as Garcia in the talent department.
“He don’t deserve it,” Mayweather said when asked why he simply won’t let Ryan Garcia fight Tank Davis right away. “But who’s he beat?,” Mayweather said when told that Ryan Garcia is unbeaten. “Tank is a two-time world champion, and a multi-millionaire, because he’s with The Money Team [TMT],” Mayweather said.
Ryan announced this week that he’s going to be sparring with Canelo this Tuesday. He’s getting great experience training alongside Canelo. It can only make Garcia better with each fight. It’s scary to think how good Ryan is going to be in three to five years. A lot of boxing fans are already asking to have the sparring session streamed so that they can see Ryan and Canelo battle it out.
In Garcia’s next fight, he’ll be facing Jose Lopez (20-3-1, 14 KOs) next month on March 30 in a Golden Boy Promotions card at the Fantasy Springs Casino, in Indio, California. It’s likely that Garcia will be added to the Canelo vs. Daniel Jacobs card on May 4 on DAZN from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Garcia will get a lot of attention from boxing fan fighting on that card. Ryan will be showcasing his mad skills against Lopez.
We could see Ryan capturing a world title in 2019, depending on if the World Boxing Organization orders a fight between him and WBO super featherweight champion Masayuki Ito (25-1-1, 13 KOs). Garcia is ranked #1 with the WBO at 130, so it’s only a matter of time before the sanctioning body orders the Ito-Garcia fight for the WBO strap. Golden Boy Promotions aren’t likely going to Ryan on his leash if the WBO orders the fight between him and the 28-year-old Ito. The smarter fight or Ryan will be for him to beat Ito first to capture the WBO super featherweight title. Once Garcia has the WBO belt, he’ll be in a much better position to negotiate a big money fight with Gervonta than he is right now with Mayweather offering him only $200,000 to fight his little known prospect Romero in order to earn a fight with Davis. Mayweather probably doesn’t realize how highly Ryan is ranked with the WBO at super featherweight. If Mayweather understood that Garcia is rated #1 with the WBO, and is on the verge of fighting for that title, then he would likely be singing a different tune. It’s in Mayweather’s best interest to try and setup the fight right now between Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia rather than later, after Ryan wins the WBO belt. The percentage split of the money between Garcia and Davis would be more slanted in Gervonta’s favor if he can fight him before he becomes the WBO super featherweight champion rather than afterwards. With Ryan improving over time with his training at Canelo’s gym, it’s going to be very hard for Gervonta to beat him the future. It’s going to be a different Garcia than the one that we’ve seen lately against Carlos Morales, Braulio Rodriguez and Jayson Velez. Ryan is going to improve to the level where he might be unbeatable. Another Oscar De La Hoya type Golden Boy within a blink of an eye.
