By Dan Ambrose: WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis says he’s concerned about Ryan Garcia being scared away if he looks too good in defeating his January 7th opponent Hector Luis Garcia on Showtime PPV at the Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C.
(Photo credit: Jose Pineiro/SHOWTIME®)
Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) commented today with the media that he hopes Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs) doesn’t attend the fight live, meaning that his impressive showing may intimidate the young 23-year-old.
The last thing Tank needs are for Ryan to pull out of the fight, as we saw him do the first time he was scheduled to fight Javier Fortuna last year.
Tank wants to get the fight with Ryan out of the way so that he can move on to bigger & better opportunities.
Ryan has chosen to stay inactive up until the April 15th fight with Tank because, according to him, he wants to focus only on that match-up.
Some feel that Ryan was being less than truthful with that flimsy excuse, considering his punch resistance isn’t what it needs to be for him to 100% defeat a motivated opponent trying to take his head off.
Given how Ryan was dropped hard by southpaw Luke Campbell last year, it makes sense for him to duck the tune-up against Mercito Gesta on January 28th.
“Yeah, probably. That’s why I don’t know. Hopefully, he don’t come and see it in person. Maybe watch it on TV or something like that,” said Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis when asked by the media if he may inadvertently scare away Ryan Garcia by looking too good in beating Hector Luis Garcia on January 7th.
“I think Hector is a sound fighter. He just beat a top prospect [Chris Colbert]. He’s a durable guy. He’s coming to fight, and is 16-0. You can’t sleep on Hector. If you sleep on Hector, Hector might sleep you.
“Every fighter is dangerous. I think both opponents. Even Ryan, he’s training now. I don’t think either one of them is a complete fighter.
“I keep getting caught in my [left] eye with a thumb in camp,” said Tank Davis about his training with southpaw sparring partners. “Hopefully, it don’t happen in the fight with me getting caught with a thumb.
“I can’t go in with either opponent and try and knock them out. It’s more than just punching power. It’s skills along with the boxing IQ,” said Tank.