By Sam Volz: Ryan Garcia says he’ll be rooting for Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis to knock out Hector Luis Garcia on January 7th because he feels it’ll make their still-unsigned April 15th fight bigger for the fans.
If Ryan had done his part by taking a quality fight of his own as a build-up to the Tank fight, he would be doing his part to create more interest.
Instead of Ryan being dependent on Tank Davis doing all the hard work to make their fight an appealing one to the fans by taking on the tough 2016 Olympian Hector Garcia, Kingry could have gotten off his backside and fought someone.
“He’s just not on Tank’s level,” said Ryan Garcia to SI about his view that unbeaten Hector Luis Garcia not being a threat to Gervonta Davis on January 7th. “I want Tank to knock him out cold. It will make our fight even more interesting.”
Ryan is taking a lazy approach to the mega-fight with Tank, letting him stick his neck out to do all the hard work while he gets a free ride. There was talk of Ryan taking a tune-up against 35-year-old journeyman Mercito Gesta on January 28th, but he chose not to take the fight.
It would have been a weak fight compared to Tank Davis’ risky match against Hector Garcia, but at least it would have been something from the social media/boxer hybrid fighter.
If Ryan were willing to face an equivalent opponent to the one Tank is fighting, he would have needed to fight the likes of Frank Martin or Devin Haney. It’s highly unlikely that Ryan would beat either of those two guys because they can fight and don’t depend on their social media followers to get them big fights.
Hector is considered by many to be the #1 fighter at 130 now that Shakur Stevenson is fighting at 135.
You can argue that the only thing Ryan brings to the table in a fight with Tank is his 9 million followers on Instagram. He didn’t get those followers by his accomplishments inside the ring because he’s beaten no one of note during his six-year professional career, aside from a couple of old veterans in Luke Campbell and Javier Fortuna.
Ryan feels that the unbeaten WBA super featherweight champion Hector Garcia (16-0, 10 KOs) isn’t on the same level as Gervonta (27-0, 25 KOs).
Of course, that’s pretty rich coming from Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs), considering what the boxing world has been saying about him all along.
Almost no one is giving the 23-year-old Ryan any shot at beating Tank Davis, and the only reason the fight is interesting is because of the large 9 million followers that Garcia has.
“I really just want to focus on the fight that matters,” said Kingry Garcia. “And the only fight that matters to me is Tank.”
“I’m ready to go right after Tank. It’s not about the money for me,” said Ryan. “I’m just not interested in easy fights.”
“For me, it’s really truly about greatness. I’ve worked so hard to get to this point,” said Garcia.