By Allan Fox: Ryan Garcia has chosen NOT to take his risky tune-up fight against southpaw Mercito Gesta on January 28th, preferring to wait until his massive life-changing money fight against Gervonta Davis on April 15th.
Ryan has been hounding Tank Davis for a fight night & day for the last two years, and he’s not going to put the bag he’ll get for that match at risk by facing the upset-minded Gesta.
The 23-year-old ‘Kingry’ Ryan Garcia took to social media on Friday to tell his 154,000 followers that he wants to go straight into the Tank Davis fight and knock “him out in 2.”
You can argue that the REAL reason the Golden Boy promoted Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs) has decided not to fight Gesta (33-3-3, 17 KOs) is that there’s an element of risk involved in fighting the 35-year-old former lightweight contender.
Even though Gesta is up there in age and isn’t the fighter that he once was, he’s still tough as nails, and if he’s able to drag Ryan into the deeper rounds, he’ll expose that weak chin, just as Luke Campbell did.
The chances of Ryan knocking out the experienced Gesta early would be slim, which means he would get hit a lot by him, and he might not hold up.
Ryan has never fought anyone good during his six-year career, and Gesta, even though old & past it, would still be a step up from the mediocre bunch Kingry has faced.
Again, it comes down to Ryan not wanting to risk his bag for the Tank Davis fight in April.
If Ryan had stuck it out and fought Gesta on January 28th, the ratings on DAZN would likely have been low due to a much more exciting fight taking place on the same night between undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo and Tim Tszyu.
Faced with watching Ryan Garcia vs. Mercito Gesta and Charlo vs. Tszyu, it’s safe to say that the fans would have chosen the latter.
Been thinking about it during the time they were figuring out this fight and I feel the fans and everyone who supports boxing have seen these tune ups already it’s time that we give the fans what they want. Also he requested the tune up not me so let him handle business. LETS GO
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) December 17, 2022
F*ck the tune up. Bring on Tank. SPARKING HIM OUT IN 2 ✌️
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) December 17, 2022
Ryan would have looked silly fighting Gesta, given that Tank Davis is facing a real challenge in unbeaten Hector Luis Garcia on January 7th on Showtime. Gesta isn’t even ranked in the top 15 at lightweight.
By contrast, Hector Garcia is considered by many boxing fans as the #1 fighter in the super featherweight division after defeating Chris Colbert and Roger Gutierrez in consecutive fights to capture the WBA 130-lb title.