By Aragon Garcia: Ryan ‘King’ Garcia sent secondary WBA lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis a message this week by letting him know that doesn’t want him running away scared after he sees what he does to Luke Campbell on December 5th.
King Ryan (20-0, 17 KOs) wants to face the unbeaten Tank Davis (24-0, 23 KOs) in a mega-fight on Showtime pay-per-view in early 2021. Davis, 25, needs him to get that big PPV fight that he’s been looking for his entire career, but he can’t run away if he wants that match.
Ryan, 22, notes that Gervonta’s management at Mayweather Promotions has been playing chess with the way they’ve matched him against weaker opponents his entire seven-year pro career.
If he wants to get a fight against him, Gervonta will need to break that pattern of matchmaking and convince Mayweather Promotions to let him take this risky fight.
Ryan is worried that after he beats Luke Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs) impressively on December 5th, Gervonta will flee in the other direction and not want to fight him.
Garcia wants the fight with Tank more than anything, and it would be a big disappointment for him if he decides that he doesn’t want to face him.
Ryan Garcia: Tank is playing chess with his match-ups
“Me and Gervonta is a great fight, and Gervonta knows it,” said Ryan Garcia to TMZ Sport. “The only way Gervonta can get a huge fight is through me. There’s no other one to make a huge mega-fight that he wants.
“I’m not overlooking Campbell. Campbell is a great fighter, but I’m going to handle my business. That’s the fight [Tank] that I want. I can definitely play it the way they’re playing it.
“They’re [Team Davis] playing chess with the match-ups, which we all know that we both can knock people out. We know that we can put people to sleep that don’t belong in the ring with us.
“But one day you’ve got to go up against someone that you also can get slept, and that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to get in there and give fans a fight to remember for the rest of their lives,” said Ryan Garcia.
It’s really disappointing how many years of Tank’s career has been wasted with him facing nobody’s one after another. Mayweather Promotions haven’t done Tank any favors with the poor opposition they’ve fed him for the last seven years.
When you contrast the type of opposition that Floyd Mayweather Jr was fighting in the first seven years of his pro career, there’s no comparison between him and Tank.
That’s not because Davis isn’t as good as him. Mayweather Promotions hasn’t shown the desire to match Tank Davis up against quality opposition, which is why he’s not more popular.
By the time Mayweather was in his seventh year as a pro, he’d already fought these fighters:
- Diego Corrales
- Jose Luis Castillo x 2
- Carlos Hernandez
- Victoriano Sosa
- Phillip Ndou
- Emmanuel Augustus
- Genaro Hernandez
- Angel Manfredy
Tank should have been put in with Vasyl Lomachenko years ago by Mayweather Promotions. They missed the boat by not showing a willingness to let Tank face Lomachenko, and now it’s too late.
Teofimo Lopez already beat Lomachenko, and that win has turned him into the biggest star at 135. Davis is now fighting for scraps compared to faded fighters like Yuriorkis Gamboa and Leo Santa Cruz.
King Ryan says Gervonta needs me for a mega-fight
“So let’s make it now. If not, I’m not worried about it because they have to come through me if they want a huge mega-fight like a Pacquiao or Mayweather. They have to have me,” Ryan said about Davis needing him for a big pay-per-view fight.
“I’m the chess piece they need. So it’s on them how they want to play it. I can play it the same way. And I can go out there and fight guys that don’t belong in the ring with me, and I could put them to bed just like Gervonta does.
“I don’t fear no man but God,” Ryan Garcia said when told that he doesn’t appear to fear Tank Davis. “I’ll go in the ring there, assess what he’s doing, stay calm, and just do what I do. Gervonta is an explosive fighter, a great fighter.
“I’m not knocking him, never a hater and I’m not saying he sucks, but in order to be great, you have to go for great challenges. This is my great challenge; this is my Sonny Liston fight,” Ryan said about his rivalry with Tank Davis.
Tank Davis better convince his promoters at Mayweather Promotions to have some confidence in him and let him take the fight with Ryan Garcia. He’s not going to wait around for Davis.
Ryan is heading for superstardom, and he’s offering Tank a fight now. If he doesn’t want to face him, it’s his loss.
It’ll be another case of Tank letting an important fight slip through his fingers by not being assertive with his management at Mayweather Promotions. They really blew it by not setting up a fight between Tank and Lomachenko.
Many boxing fans believe that Mayweather Promotions were waiting until Lomachenko got old before finally letting Tank fight him. So instead of showing confidence in their fighter Tank by letting him fight Lomachenko years ago, they didn’t make the fight, and now it’s too late.
If Tank fights Lomchenko now and beats him, h won’t get the credit as he would have years ago.
Garcia ready to “beat the bully” Davis
“They’re [Tank Davis] super confident in their match-up against me, and I’m here to beat up the bully,” said Garcia.
“Oh yeah,” King Ryan said when told that he seems confident of beating Gervonta.
“I’m extremely confident that I would beat that boy down. He’s just a big bully. He just comes in, rambs in with his head, and doesn’t care if he gets hit and he tries to knock you out.
“That doesn’t phase me. I will never panic against a bully. I’ve dealt with that in school, and I’ve beat a couple of bullies down. So I’m not worried about it,” said Garcia.
Ryan still needs to get through his next fight against the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell on December 5th, and then he can continue to ratchet up the pressure on Mayweather Promotions for the Tank match.
It would be a good idea for King Ryan not to waste too much time trying to get the fight with Davis, considering that we’ve already seen the reluctance of his management o put him in with talented fighters in the past.
Ryan can’t wait for his entire career for Tank’s promoters to finally have the confidence they need to make the fight with them. There are other big fish to fry at 135 for Ryan Garcia if Tank doesn’t want to step up. He’s too busy fighting older guys.
Ryan to Tank: Don’t run away scared
“It didn’t even make my pulse go up,” Ryan Garcia in reacting to Gervonta’s sixth round knockout of Leo Santa Cruz.
“I wasn’t worried about it. I already knew that was going to happen, but props to Leo for being a warrior. Props to Gervonta for landing that monstrous shot that he did. He did a great job, props to him, but let’s get it on, baby.
“Don’t run away from this specialness. We’re ready to go. I can hit like that too. Don’t run away, Gervonta.
“Let’s go. Don’t be afraid after I beat Luke Campbell. That’s what I’m afraid of. I hope it’s a good fight so you don’t get scared. I hope it’s a good one,” said Ryan in sending a message to Tank Davis.
Ryan could be predicting the future by hoping that Tank Davis doesn’t lose his nerve after he sees what he’s about to do to Campbell on December 5th. If Ryan looks too good in that fight, it won’t be surprising if Davis goes in the opposite direction and continues to face older guys.
What’s sad for Tank is that if Mayweather Promotions choose to put him on pay-per-view from this point forward, his popularity won’t increase, especially if he continues to fight older guys on the downside of their careers.
It’s still too early for Davis to be fighting on pay-per-view, given the weak opposition that he’s been fighting during his seven-year career. It wouldn’t be too early if Davis had been fighting elite-level opposition four of five years ago, but he hasn’t. Those years are gone, and wasted with Davis being put in against subpar fighters repeatedly.
So for Tank to be fighting on Showtime PPV now, he won’t be seen by a lot of casual boxing fans, who want to spend their money on a fighter they’ve never seen before.
There’s never been a reason for the casual fans to watch any of Tank’s fights because he’s been fighting mediocre opposition.