By Mark Eisner: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) defeated a game Hector Luis Garcia (16-1, 10 KOs) by a ninth round stoppage on Saturday night at the Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C.
Gervonta hurt the previously unbeaten Garcia at the end of the eighth round. At the start of the ninth, the 31-year-old Hector chose not to come out, which was an anticlimactic way for the exciting fight to end.
Referee Albert Brown halted the contest at 0:13 of round nine. It wasn’t the domination that fans thought Tank would put in, but it was good enough to move him forward for a lucrative fight against Ryan Garcia in April.
Undercard results
- Jaron “Boots” Ennis (30-0, 27 KOs) overcame the 100% spoiling from his under-powered, crafty opponent Karen Chukhadzhian (21-2, 11 KOs) to win a dull twelve round unanimous decision to capture the vacant IBF interim welterweight strap. The judges’ scores were 120-108, 120-108, and 120-108. Boxing News scored it 120-108. The fight was so ugly to watch, thanks to the nonstop movement from Karen. He clearly wasn’t there to win, as he only rarely stopped moving to throw an odd shot here and there. Ennis, 25, struggled to try to hit a moving target as he was loading up and missing all night. Had Ennis focused on using his jab and going to the body, he would have had better success. In the 11th and 12th, Boots Ennis focused more on landing body shots, and he did well, tiring out Karen. With this performance, Ennis might have a chance of getting IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr to fight him because he might feel more confident after watching the problems he had against the slick Ukrainian. Of course, Spence & Terence Crawford would have had massive problems as well trying to land their shots against the negative fighter that Boots was in with tonight. When you get a fighter that is just trying to survive, it’s almost impossible to look good against them.
- In a massive upset, Roiman Villa (26-1, 24 KOs) defeated the favorite Rashidi Ellis (24-1, 15 KOs) by a 12 round majority decision in an IBF 147-lb title eliminator bout. The scores were 114-112, 114-112, and 113-113. Villa dropped an exhausted and hurt 29-year-old Rashidi in the twelfth round. The referee, who was having a bad night, blew a call by failing to give Villa credit for a third knockdown in the 12th. Fortunately for Villa, it didn’t have a bearing on the outcome. Ellis fought well in the first five rounds, but by the sixth, he began to fade from the combination of body shots and pressure from Villa. By the championship rounds, Ellis was mostly holding and trying to stall out the fight, while Villa pounded him unmercifully. The win for Villa makes him the mandatory to IBF champion Errol Spence Jr.
- Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs) put in a workman-like performance tonight, beating the tough but limited journeyman Demond Nicholson (26-5-1, 22 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision in his debut at 168. The former two-division world champion Andrade, knocked Nicholson down twice, dropping him in the second and tenth rounds. The scores were 100-88, 100-88, and 100-88. It appeared the 34-year-old Demetrius was holding back, purposefully fighting in first gear to get some badly needed rounds in. Andrade had been out of the ring for a while, so it’s understandable why he would want to let the fight go the distance against a guy that he probably could have stopped early if he’d put his foot on the gas. Andrade is hoping to lure Jermall Charlo into fighting him. That’s another reason why Andrade may have stayed in first gear tonight.
- Junior middleweight Vito Mielnicki Jr. (14-1, 9 KOs) stopped Omar Rosales (9-2-1, 5 KOs) by a fourth round knockout. The 32-year-old Rosales was knocked down in the third round. In the fourth, his trainer had the fight stopped. The 20-year-old Mielnicki Jr picked up his sixth consecutive victory.
- Light welterweight Michael Ogundo (17-16, 14 KOs) defeated ring-rusty former two-division world champion Lamont Peterson (35-6-1, 17 KOs) by a fourth round knockout. Coming off a four-year layoff, the 38-year-old Peterson was knocked own in the fourth round, and the bout was then halted shortly after that. Before tonight, the Washington, D.C. native Peterson hadn’t fought since March 2019, losing to Sergey Lipinets by a tenth round knockout. Peterson’s loss tonight was his third consecutive since 2018. His last win came in 2017 against David Avanesyan.
- Undefeated junior middleweight prospect Travon Marshall (7-0, 6 KOs) scored a blistering fast first round knockout over Shawn West (7-3-1, 4 KOs). The bout was halted in the first minute before boxing fans at ringside got a chance to see a real fight.
- Super middleweight contender Kyrone Davis (17-3-1, 6 KOs) showed his class, beating journeyman Cristián Fabián Ríos (23-16-3, 7 KOs) by an eight round unanimous decision. The scores were 80-72, 80-72, and 79-73.
- Welterweight Keeshawn Williams (11-1, 2 KOs) beat Argentinian journeyman Gustavo David Vittori (27-12-1, 12 KOs) by a six round unanimous decision.
- Unbeaten junior middleweight prospect Jalil Hackett (5-0, 4 KOs) crushed Joel Guevara (4-9-1, 3 KOs) by a first round knockout.
- Female super featherweight Mia Ellis (6-1, 5 KOs) destroyed 47-year-old Karen Dulin (5-26-1, 3 KOs) by a first round knockout.
- Unbeaten light welterweight contender Brandun Lee (27-0, 23 KOs) kept his perfect record intact with a fourth round knockout over Diego Luque (21-11-2, 10 KOs). Referee Brent Bovell halted this hopelessly one-sided contest at 2:55 of the fourth. It sure would be nice to see Lee step it up one day.
Preview:
The co-feature bout between Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (29-0, 27 KOs) and Karen Chukhadzhian (21-1, 11 KOs) is arguably the more interesting one than the main event fight between Tank & Hector because there’s a lot more riding on the fight.
‘Boots’ Ennis & Chukhadzhian will be fighting for the vacant interim IBF welterweight title, with the winner to be in a position to challenge IBF/WBA/WBC champion Errol Spence Jr this year.
“It’s going to be a good fight. I think the kid [Hector Luis] Garcia is coming to win. He’s got the look in his eyes that Tank is going to have to earn everything he gets,” said Stephen ‘Breadman’ Edwards to Fight Hub TV.
Demetrius Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs) will be looking to shine in his debut at super middleweight against Demond Nicholson (26-4-1, 22 KOs) in a 10 round bout that he’s hoping will lead to him getting a fight against Jermall Charlo or the winner of the Caleb Plant vs. David Benavidez fight.
Andrade will likely come up empty in getting any of those fighters to face him because the risk-reward is too high for him to be a worthwhile opponent.
Welterweight Rashidi Ellis (24-0, 15 KOs) will compete in an IBF 147-lb eliminator against fringe contender Roiman Villa (25-1, 24 KOs). The winner will be mandatory for Spence’s IBF 147-lb title, but they may end up having to settle for a fight against ‘Boots’ Ennis.
Gervonta has to prove himself
“Tank passes the eyeball test really good. He looks like the real deal. I think he is the real deal,” said Edwards when asked why so many boxing fans believe that Hector has no chance against Tank Davis and will be steamrolled tonight.
“If you notice that big punchers before they lose, they’re always big favorites in fights. If you notice guys like Tyson, Hearns. Just think of all the big punchers that you know. They’re usually big favorites before they lose.
“So the eyeball tests say that Tank is probably going to knock him out. I don’t know; we got to see. A lot of guys are surviving with good match-making, and a lot of guys are the real deal,” said Edwards when asked if Hector Garcia’s defensive ability in past fights suggests how good he is or if he a product of good match-making.
“As you step up and fight fights against opponents that aren’t hand-picked, as you fight fights against guys that have had eight to ten weeks to prepare for you, then the results start changing a bit.
“We got to see. I don’t know enough about him to say that. He looks like a solid fighter to me, but I’ve only seen the [Chris] Colbert fight. So it’s hard to judge a guy off of one fight. He [Hector Garcia] could have just been hot that night. It’s hard to judge a guy off one fight.
Hector can’t be wreckless
“‘Sudden’ is a good word because his power comes out of nowhere,” said Edwards about Tank Davis. “With a guy like that, you can’t fall asleep, or you will fall asleep. You got to be on your p’s & q’s. You’ve got to be real alert.
“You’ve got to have a high sense of awareness because they’re hitting you with shots that you’re not seeing out of the clinch. Guys making silent agreements out of the clinch, and then he [Tank Davis] pulls up, ‘Boom!’ He’s real good at that. He got a guy in the UK like that. He was breaking him up.
“It wasn’t even an illegal shot. It was a good shot, but you have to have a high sense of awareness when you’re dealing with a big puncher, and that’s what I would be preaching to the kid [Hector].
“Everybody has tendencies. Tank has little setup moves that he does. You have to have a real sense of awareness, and you’re punches have to be real sharp. You can’t be real crazy with your punches because you can get countered.
“Rolly [Romero] was doing real good; he was fighting a good fight. I thought he was winning the fight as far as points are concerned, but people only remember the end result.
“He overcommitted with the right hand, and Tank ran him straight into his left hand. So you’ve got to be careful when you’re dealing with a big puncher that you don’t overcommit and that everything is sharp and have a high sense of awareness,” said Breadman.
Garcia is well trained
“Garcia has a good coach. He knows what he’s doing. Bob Santos is a good coach,” said Edwards. “Hopefully, they’ve got the right game plan. We’ll see. It’s going to be a good fight.
“I don’t like to speak on how the ship is being ran when I’m not in a camp with a guy. I’m not in camp with Tank, so I don’t know if he’s focused or not. I don’t know him well enough to say that.
“I just know he’s a terrific fighter from what I see from the outside. I have been around Calvin Ford a little bit. I think he’s a great coach. I think he’s real underrated.
“Anytime you have one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, and you had them since they were a small kid, and you get them to this point, you’ve got to get your props as a trainer.
“He’s an excellent trainer. But as far as their camp is being run, I can’t speak on that because I’m not in their camp.
“I don’t know, I don’t know him well enough,” said Breadman when asked if Tank is overlooking Garcia. “Sometimes people get in front of cameras, and they speak in absolute terms like they know different things. I would just be guessing.
“I never even met Tank before. I know his coaches. His coaches are cool, Kenny & Calvin, but I don’t know him. So, I don’t know if he’s overlooking him. Some guys can function under absolute chaos.
“They can have a lot of people around them with a lot of outside-of-the-ring stuff. Some guys can function under that, and some guys can’t. Everybody is different,” said Breadman.
Tank can’t overlook this guy
“So, I don’t know if he’s overlooking the guy or if he’s worried about different things,” Edwards said. “Some people have the ability to just flip the switch. Some people don’t. Some guys, you’ve got to lock away. You’ve got to take their phones and concentrate on everything that they’re doing.
“So, it depends on the fighter. You probably know more than me, so I don’t know. He [Gervonta] seems to come through when he needs to come through. He seems to have a clutch gene where he got to this point.
“People talk about his opponents, but he’s still got to deliver. He’s still got to go in there and deliver those knockouts and put people in the seats and be exciting. So he still has to do what he needs to do, because not everybody looks as good as he does winning the fights he wins.
“I can just imagine that he’s probably locked in and ready to go. That’s what his career has shown pretty much thus far. We’re going to see, but I do think he’s in a real fight.
“When you’ve got a trainer that is hot and a lot of good guys in the gym, and everybody is winning, and everybody is on top of you, and everything you’re doing is being marked down.
“Your situps, your pushups, how many rounds you sparred, how much you’re doing on this bag or that bag. All that stuff matters. So [Hector] Garcia is going to fight.
“I don’t think he’s going to win. That’s his trainer right there. I’m going to be real honest. I don’t think he’s going to win the fight, but I do think he’s going to go out on his shield.
“I do think he’s going to let everybody know that he came to win. I think Tank has got his work cut out for him, but we’ll see. Tank might clip him in the first round. That’s the kind of guy he is, but we’ll see how the fight goes,” said Breadman Edwards about tonight’s Gervonta vs. Hector fight.
Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis has a real fight on his hands tonight against the highly accomplished Hector Luis Garcia in their battle on Showtime pay-per-view.
Tank Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) puts his unbeaten record on the line against the 2016 Olympian and current WBA super featherweight champion Hector Davis (16-0, 10 KOs) in an event that starts at 9:00 p.m. ET.