By Chris Williams: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis says Ryan Garcia is now “begging” for a fight against him, but he’s just going to have to wait because he’s got another fight that he plans on taking against a world champion. Tank (24-0, 23 KOs) says he’s the one that “runs the show.”
‘King’ Ryan (21-0, 18 KOs) had his chance to fight the superstar WBA lightweight champion Tank Davis next. Still, he suddenly changed his mind and went scurrying in the opposite direction towards what he thought would be a fight against former eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao.
Unfortunately, when the bottom dropped out of the Pacquiao fight, proving that Ryan had seen a mirage, he was left without the match that he thought he would get against the Filipino boxing legend.
Ryan is now going to have to stay active while he waits for the dust to clear from Tank’s title fight in the first half of 2021.
Ryan Garcia needs to wait in the line
For Ryan’s sake, he needs to fight someone talented to stay relevant in the spotlight. It’s not going to help Ryan if he faces another Luke Campbell-level guy, a fighter who was coming off a one-sided loss to Vasily Lomachenko.
Ryan is needy and, as Tank says, “begging” for the fight against him. But it’s too late, as the former two-division world champion Tank says he’s fighting a world champion but NOT at 130 or 135.
“Ryan [Garcia] begging to fight me now. Now I make you wait,” said Tank Davis on his Twitter. “Just so you know, we run the show. I’m fighting twice this year $$$. I don’t care if they are dissing..it ain’t deep!”
The undefeated superstar Gervonta isn’t saying which champion he’ll be fighting next, but it leaves only these two guys as realistic options for him at 126 and 140:
- Gary Russell Jr
- Mario Barrios
Gary Russell brings more to the table
Russell Jr (31-1, 18 KOs) brings more to the table for Tank Davis in terms of getting more attention and credit, considering he’s the longest-reigning champion in boxing. He’s held his WBC 126lb title since 2015 after dethroning the fearsome punching Jhonny Gonzalez.
Russell Jr has fought Lomachenko, and he came close to beating him when he was in his prime back in June 2014. Lomachenko won by a 12 round majority decision, but many boxing fans felt that Russell Jr had done enough to deserve a draw out of the fight.
WBA ‘regular’ 140-lb champion Mario Barrios (26-0, 17 KOs) isn’t that well-known to the average boxing fan, but he’s young at 25, and he lives in Texas. If Tank fights Barrios, they can do the match in front of a Texas crowd, and there will be money to be made. Tank can get that bag with a fight against Barrios.
It would be difficult for the 5’5 1/2″ Tank to deal with the height and reach advantage of the tall 5’10” Barrios, who also has a lot longer reach than him. Tank would need to figure out how to get in punching range of Barrios without getting tagged multiple times while on the way in.
Ryan Garcia could face Javier Fortuna next
As for Ryan Garcia, he will have to look in another direction for his next fight because the Tank Davis ship has sailed. As the saying goes, ‘When you snooze, you lose,’ and Ryan clearly missed his opportunity to get a big paycheck against Tank by backing out after talking a lot of trash about wanting to fight him.
#2 WBC Javier Fortuna (36-2-1, 25 KOs) has been mentioned as a possible opponent for Ryan Garcia’s next fight. This is a risky fight for the 22-year-old King Ryan, seeing that Fortuna is a former WBA super featherweight champion. He’s only lost twice in defeats against Jason Sosa and Robert Easter Jr during his 12-year professional career.
Fortuna, 31, is a lot older than Ryan, and he has a lot of experience in the game. With Fortuna’s awkward fighting style, he could beat Ryan. Fortuna is a bigger puncher than Campbell, and he’s a lot more aggressive than him.
If Ryan gets hurt by Fortuna, he’s not going to let him off the hook the way that Campbell did after dropping the upstart in the second round in their fight last January.
Chris Willams sees Fortuna beating King Ryan and ending the hype. Golden Boy Promotions needs to think hard before putting Ryan in with Fortuna because he could wreck his career.