By Craig Daly: Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis has pled guilty to four traffic offenses in a plea deal for a 2020 hit & run case, and he’ll be sentenced on May 5th, which leaves him clear to face Ryan Garcia potentially on April 15th in their long-awaited mega-fight on Showtime PPV.
The Baltimore Banner is reporting the news of the 28-year-old Tank Davis’ please deal, and it’s now known that his court case won’t impact his still unsigned clash against the popular Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs)
For the boxing fans that have been looking forward to Gervonta vs. Ryan fight for the last two years, they finally can get a chance to see this match-up happen. However, the bout still needs to pass the final hurdle blocking it in the former of the rematch clause, which is currently impeding the process of making this fight a reality.
It would be a massive disappointment in the boxing world if PBC/Showtime is willing to scrap the Tank-Garcia fight over the rematch clause because the alternatives for Tank aren’t as good.
The next big massive fight for Tank would be against Shakur Stevenson, and that’s a match that he has less chance of winning. It’s doubtful that Tank would willingly agree to fight the unbeaten Stevenson, so PBC won’t even need to block that one because it has about as much chance of happening as the Errol Spence Jr vs. Terence Crawford clash.
Ryan’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions want to be the lead promoter for the rematch if their fighter wins the first fight on April 15th, but it remains to be seen if Tank’s management at PBC & network, Showtime, will grant them this. For them not to would suggest that they lack confidence in Tank.
Tank needs this fight because he’s been in the pro ranks for ten years, and his opposition has been a mix of fringe-level fighters and old washed-up champions, thanks to the careful manner in which his former promoters at Mayweather Promotions chose to match him.
They obviously didn’t want Tank to lose, but another reason for the weak match-making likely had to do with them not wanting wear & tear on him that would come if they put him in against cutting-edge competition instead of the lesser guys that were continually pitting him against.