By Allan Fox: Ryan Garcia has changed his mind about fighting the 35-year-old journeyman Mercito Gesta in a tune-up to prepare for his April 15th fight against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
There was a huge backlash against Ryan over him potentially fighting Gesta because that fighter’s career began a downward slide a decade ago when he was schooled by Miguel Vazquez in 2012.
Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs) wants to go straight into the fight with Tank without the tune-up. With that said, Tank (27-0, 25 KOs) has his fight still scheduled against Hector Luis Garcia on January 7th on Showtime PPV, and he’s not going to pull out of the fight.
If Ryan isn’t going to take a tune-up against Gesta (33-3-3, 17 KOs), he could be the one that is ultimately hurt because he’ll have been out of the ring for nine months by the time he faces Tank Davis in April.
It’s unclear if Ryan’s chances of defeating Tank will be improved to any great extent if he takes a tune-up against the southpaw Gesta. The perception the boxing world has is Ryan is going to get wiped out by the 28-year-old Gervonta regardless of the situation.
“Never was a contract. I just talked about,” said Ryan Garcia on Twitter about Mercito Gesta. “I was deciding if I needed to fight before
F*ck the tune up. Bring on Tank. SPARKING HIM OUT IN 2 ✌️
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) December 17, 2022
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
“I think it’s a lot closer than people think,” said Vergil Ortiz Jr to Fight Hub TV about the Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia fight. “They both have one-punch knockout power, and they both have to worry about each other.
“They’re both really fast, and they both have the power to change the tide of the fight with one punch. You have to know boxing, you have to live it, you have to breathe it. You can’t count someone out like that, especially Ryan.
“If you’ve seen Ryan, he has something that other fighters don’t have. That left hook that he caught that guy coming in with. It was so fast. It didn’t look like he put so much behind it, but it dropped him.
“That’s what I’m saying; he [Ryan] has that power. They both have that power. He’s a lot bigger than him, for starters. He has the reach on him,” said Ortiz when asked what advantages Ryan has over Tank Davis. “It’s really fast, really strong.”