By Dan Ambrose: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis is pulling for Ryan ‘Kingry’ Garcia to beat Luke Campbell when those two go at it in 2020. Davis would prefer to face Ryan, but if he gets beaten by Campbell, then he’ll target him.
WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion, Tank Davis (23-0, 22 KOs), says he was supposed to be fighting Ryan this December. That’s not going to happen now. If Ryan and Campbell fight, it’s going to be in November or December likely.
Golden Boy Promotions still needs to negotiate the Garcia-Campbell fight with Matchroom Boxing. The WBC didn’t say anything about a deadline for the Campbell vs. Garcia negotiations to be completed by for the match to go ahead. It’s assumed that it’s 30 days. If they fail to negotiate the fight by then, we’ll be looking at a purse bid.
The winner of the Ryan vs. Luke Campbell fight will be mandatory for WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney. They’ll also be the new interim WBC champion. That title will be on the line for their fight.
Ryan Garcia has been calling Tank Davis out for a long time now, and now he can earn the fight by beating Campbell. The WBC wants the Garcia vs. Campbell fight to stick with their mini-tournament situation. They may not like the idea of Ryan or Campbell veering off to face Tank Davis.
Tank hoping Ryan beats Luke
“He’s a great fighter, a great Mexican to put on my resume,” said Gervonta Davis to ESNEWS about Leo Santa Cruz. “Yeah, he’s definitely going down for the Hall of Fame, one of the best Mexicans. So it’s great to have him on my resume.
“Yeah, I seen him when he fought Loma,” said Tank Davis of Luke Campbell. “Hopefully, Ryan can get past him [Campbell]. Actually, I’ll fight the winner out of both of them of that fight. Whoever wins, I’ll fight them. Yeah, it was supposed to happen in December,” said Davis about a fight between him and Garcia.
Ryan can beat Campbell if he lands one of his left hooks to the head, and finishes him off if he gets back up. Campbell has been dropped before by lesser punchers than Ryan Garcia in Yvan Mendy, Argenis Mendez, and Vasiliy Lomachenko. If those guys were able t knockdown, Campbell, then Ryan can do it as well.
The thing that Ryan has to watch out for is what happens before and after he knocks him down. Campbell has respectable power of his own, and he’s tricky and knows how to land his big shots. Carlos Morales had Ryan wobbling at one point in their fight in 2018, and that was a close match.
Gervonta has no control
“That’s all messed up. I just hope he pulls through Luke Campbell so we can make the fight happen,” said Tank Davis.
It’s got to be frustrating for Tank Davis to be so close to a big payday match-up against Ryan Garcia, but he has no control in making that fight. It’s entirely up to Ryan, 21, to prove that he can beat Campbell, and then move on to potentially Haney or Tank Davis.
Ryan will need a good game plan for him to have a shot at beating Campbell because he might not be able to overpower him.
The other fighters in the WBC’s lightweight tournament: Vasily Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez, Javier Fortuna, and Jorge Linares. Lomachenko and Teofimo aren’t supposed to be staying around the 135-lb division after they face each other in September.
The Lomachenko-Lopez winner will either vacate and move up or move down to super featherweight. It’s Lomachenko that wants to move down to 130. I’m sure that Lomachenko would like to stay at 135 if it wasn’t such a dangerous division for him to be fighting at, but he doesn’t have the power to stay.