By Allan Fox: Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe refutes the comments made by Ryan Garcia on Wednesday that they’re keeping Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis from fighting him.
Ellerbe says he spoke to Ryan’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions about making a fight with Tank Davis, and he says they told him that he has “other plans.“‘
Naturally, Ellerbe interpreted that to mean that Golden Boy didn’t want that smoke for their young fighter Ryan (21-0, 18 KOs), who they are trying to turn into a real star.
Golden Boy has got a little money-maker in King Ryan, and he doesn’t even have to fight quality opposition, and he still brings in the dough.
Right now, Ryan Garcia, 23, is more of an Instagram and YouTube star along the lines of Jake Paul than he is a boxer that has accomplished something in the sport.
The best win for Ryan up to this point came against the flawed Luke Campbell last January. However, Campbell had already been exposed by Yvan Mendy, Jorge Linares, and Vasily Lomachenko well before Ryan Garcia beat him.
Ellerbe tried to make Tank vs. Ryan Garcia fight
“GB [Golden Boy Promotions] don’t want that smoke,” said Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe when asked on Twitter why Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia isn’t happening.
“Ryan Garcia, this not it, bruh lol, for real!! You know damn well what time of day it is so, please stop fronting for the fans,” Ellerbe continued.
“You know damn well I tried to make that fight, and YOUR promoter said you had other plans. Don’t have me put the doc out there and expose it, stop playing,” said Ellerbe on why Ryan Garcia vs. Tank Davis isn’t happening.
“Tank is doing his thing,” Ellerbe continued. “Tank will eventually be the biggest star in the sport; he’s well on his way.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret and by no means am I comparing him [Gervonta Davis] to Nelo [Canelo Alvarez], but Tank did a bigger live [gate] in Atl than he did Miami. Now hate on that,” said a gloating Ellerbe.
How could Ryan NOT know about the conversation his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions had with Ellerbe about them not being interested in making a fight with Tank Davis.
If Ryan wasn’t told by Golden Boy about their conversation with Ellerbe, it’s disappointing. They should be staying on the same page with Ryan to let him know whether other promoters offering him big fights.
It would be interesting to know what Golden Boy told Ryan on why they couldn’t put the fight together with Gervonta Davis. If Ryan is going on the comment that Floyd Mayweather Jr. made at the post-fight press conference last June after Tank’s win over Mario Barrios, it shows that he’s naive.
During the press conference, Mayweather said he would keep Tank fighting in-house against Mayweather Promotions and PBC fighters. Obviously, Mayweather Jr. was trolling to mess with the media and to get some cheap headlines.
There’s no way that Mayweather would keep Tank Davis limited to just fighting his and PBC fighters because there aren’t enough big names to maximize his income.
Ryan Garcia says Tank is being protected
“I do beat [Gervonta] Davis, but he’s not going to fight anybody outside of Mayweather Promotions, is what Floyd said,” said Ryan Garcia on Instagram this week about his belief that Mayweather won’t let him fight Tank Davis.
“You guys got to stop commenting about that because Gervonta is never going to fight anybody that you really want him to fight.
“Floyd gave that away. He doesn’t want to fight anybody tough. It’s just not in his [Tank Davis] nature, I guess,” said Ryan Garcia.
It sounds like maybe Ryan Garcia doesn’t want the fight with Tank Davis because if he did, he’d be checking things out for himself and pushing for the match.