Ryan Garcia: “I will go to war with Tank”

By Boxing News - 06/01/2022 - Comments

By Huck Allen: Ryan Garcia insists that his plans to fight Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis in December won’t be scuppered by his promoters at Golden Boy because he’s ready to go to war with the WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion and defeat him.

Ryan (22-0, 18 KOs) still needs to take care of a small speed bump in his path to Tank with his July 16th headliner on DAZN against Javier Fortuna (37-3-1, 26 KOs).

As long as Ryan doesn’t get caught like in his fight with Luke Campbell, Fortuna, 33, shouldn’t be any problem for him.

The bigger issue the 23-year-old Ryan has is for him to convince Golden Boy Promotions to give the green light to take the Tank Davis fight.

We know Tank Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) is game for the fight against Ryan because he called him out before and after his title defense last Saturday night against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Ryan was in the audience, Tank twice leaned over the ring apron to tell him, “You’re next.” Again, it’ll be up to Ryan’s promoters if they’re going to let him take the fight with Tank this year because ideally, he could use two to four step-up fights before he gets to that level.

It wouldn’t hurt for Ryan to get wins over these fighters before facing Tank:

  • Rolly Romero
  • Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz Jr
  • Jeremiah Nakathilia
  • Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz

Fortuna is a little long in the tooth and past it for him to be a useful opponent for Ryan to hone his skills against because he’s arguably a step down from King Ry’s last two opponents Emmanuel Tagoe & Luke Campbell.

What Ryan needs is to keep climbing the ladder, and the only way to do that is for him to fight quality fighters like Pitbull Cruz, Rolly, Nakathilia, and JoJo Diaz.

“Golden Boy will not be able to [stop the Tank Davis fight],” Ryan Garcia said to Sports Illustrated. “They can’t. I will not allow it. There’s no way.

“I will go to war to fight Tank. I’m ready to do whatever I got to do, because at the end of the day that fight is going to get me my respect, and I think I deserve that. So I’m up for the challenge.

“I’m very confident in beating him,” Ryan continued about Tank. “He’s a great fighter, don’t get me wrong. But I’m just that much greater. And I want to show him, I want to show everybody what I could do, and that that’s the fight to make. Everybody wants to see it, and I’m ready now,” said Ryan.

It would be good for Ryan to get more experience before fighting Tank because he looked uncomfortable with the pressure that the light-hitting Tagoe was putting on him last April.

Being backed up by a weak puncher like Tagoe showed that Ryan isn’t comfortable with pressure at this early stage of his carer.

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