By Dan Ambrose: The April 15th fight between Ryan Garcia & Geronta ‘Tank’ Davis could come down to which of the two can handle the power of the other fighter.
Gervonta (28-0, 26 KOs), as good as he is, he’s not been fighting anyone near the level of power of Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) during his ten-year professional career.
A big reason for that is Tank’s former promoters at Mayweather Promotions protected him well, matching against soft opposition that lacked the power & the talent to expose him.
Now that Tank is on his own and is no longer with Mayweather Promotions, he’s still yet to fight an opponent with power, but if the negotiations get completed for his mega-fight against Ryan Garcia, he soon shall.
It’s going to be interesting to see what happens to the 5’5″ Tank Davis when he gets hit with one of Ryan’s left hook blasts on the chin and finds himself on the deck for the first time in his 10-year career. Does Tank get up from that shot, and if so, can survive without getting finished off immediately with another big left hook?
“I think we overuse this idea that fighters are downloading data and they’re trying to process information in real-time. We use that sometime as a crutch to talk about as a slow start in a fight,” said Chris Mannix to DAZN’s JABS, discussing Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis specifically.
“I do think Gervonta, much like Terence Crawford does that. I think he’s trying to see how an opponent is going to fight him and adjust accordingly.
“You saw by those middle rounds Gervonta slowly but surely close the distance and slowly but surely become the aggressor, and when he saw the opportunity to strike, he did that. He’s shown at 135 pounds that he has the power to hit guys with game-changing shots,” said Mannix.
“That’s what the elite fighters at the top do. They take their time. It’s patience and maturity that makes a champion,” said Sergio Mora about Tank Davis.
“When you have that much power, you can turn everyone’s lights out, but when you’re going for the knockout, you’re vulnerable for the knockout.
“That’s why you have to have patience and maturity, and Tank Davis has both of those qualities. He has this power where it’s scary. Like I said, he has that Mike Tyson-type power where people don’t know how to react to it.
“Once he does confront someone on the championship level that knows how to react, I want to see how Tank is going to react when it comes back to him when he starts getting chin-checked, when he starts getting battered against the ropes when he finally gets hurt.
“We haven’t seen that yet because he hasn’t fought any champions yet. So far, I like what I see of him. His next fight is going to be a mega-fight against Ryan Garcia. He’s taking care of business. He’s taking zeros. That’s what I like about Tank.
“He beats anyone that they put in front of him. Mario Barrios, undefeated record, he took his record. [Hector Luis] Garcia is undefeated, and you can go all the way to Jose Pedraza, undefeated. He knocks out undefeated fighters and takes their donut.
“I love that. He’s a pay-per-view star, he’s a knockout artist, we’re all loving what we see, and that’s why he’s a star,” said Mora about Tank Davis.
“You talked about his next fight, and that is hopefully going to be a showdown with Ryan Garcia, one of the most marketable fights, maybe the most marketable fight that you can make in all of boxing,” said Mannix about Tank Davis vs. Ryan Garcia.
“What you saw from Gervonta in his fight against Hector Garcia, does that influence your opinion at all about how a Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia fight will play out?”
“Yes, it does, and I’ll tell you why. I’ve been pretty clear going on record saying that I favor Tank over Ryan Garcia, and I still kind of do,” said Mora. “I see some flaws that made me think Garcia. [Hector] Garcia was a little taller at 5’9” and had a longer reach.
“Ryan Garcia is going to be 5’11 1/2”, and a longer reach, more explosive, more power, and he maintains that distance as well, that snappy check hook, that right hand. So, I just think he’s going to have a lot of trouble; Tank is, breaking that distance.
“It’s going to take six or seven rounds to figure out fighters like [Hector] Garcia, the one he just fought. Can you imagine how long it’s going to take into the second half of the fight to discover the lightning-fast quick hands of Ryan Garcia and the power?
“Yeah, it makes me question how he’s going to react when he finally gets touched, and how he’s going to break that distance, and what if it’s a close fight and it’s going to come down to the close rounds, how he’s going to react?
“How’s his conditioning there because he’s accustomed to knocking out everyone under six? So that’s something we have to keep an eye on,” said Mora about Tank Davis.
“They’re very different fighters, Hector Garcia and Ryan Garcia. Hector Garcia is a southpaw, more of a boxer,” said Mannix. “Ryan Garcia is known for that power and speed, but I’m with you there.
“I have long slightly favored Ryan Garcia in the Gervonta match-up. I have long said that the first guy to land a big shot is going to win because both of these guys have fight-changing power.
“Gervonta, especially after he started to get comfortable in those middle rounds, was lunging a little bit, was dropping his guard a little bit. That’s probably because he knew that even though Hector Garcia that is a non-puncher, he’s not a huge puncher that has the ability to stop Gervonta with one shot.
“Ryan Garcia does, and that’s the type of fighter that Gervonta hasn’t faced up until this point. Now you can say the same thing about Ryan. he hasn’t faced anyone with the type of power as Gervonta Davis.
“What I’m looking for in this up-and-coming fight if it happens in April as planned. What happens when Gervonta comes in, and he’s going to have to come inside against Ryan, drops his guard a little bit, and gets caught?
“Is he going to be able to stand up to the power that Ryan Garcia has to the head & the body? That’s a big unknown in a fight like this because we haven’t seen Gervonta in with that kind of pop.
“They’re both power punchers, but if I have to say who has the slightly higher IQ as far as power, I’m going to go with Tank on that one,” said Mora. “With him being 5’5″, 5’5 1/2”, he knows how to use his height.
“He doesn’t fall off balance. You’re talking about lunging, but he lunges when he has his opponents hurt and is going for the stoppage. He doesn’t do that in the first five rounds when his opponents are fresh.
“Ryan Garcia has been down, and we know how he’s going to react when he goes down. We haven’t seen how Tank Davis is going to react when he goes down.
“That’s why this fight is so interesting because I can see them both getting hurt and both going down, and it’s all going to come down to heart and who’s more familiar with fighting hurt. Right now, I’m going to favor Tank still, but Garcia has still gone through the fire; Tank hasn’t,” said Mora.
“If you’re Tank Davis, there’s in a way a blueprint to get to Ryan Garcia that we’ve seen fighters try to use, especially southpaws,” said Mannix. “We saw Luke Campbell throw that sweeping left hook that knocked Ryan down.
“Javier Fortuna tried to go to that, but he just didn’t have the skills or the ability to get there. Tank Davis does, and if Tank Davis can find his way to the inside against Ryan Garcia or catch Ryan Garcia lunging towards him, he’s going to have a great chance of picking up a knockout, too,” said Mannix.