By Adam Baskin: Bill Haney says the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Ryan Garcia mega-money bout is an “exhibition” and not a “real fight” due to the dual weight stipulations that Tank’s management put into the contract to gain an advantage over Kingry on April 22nd.
Bill says with the weight stipulations in place to weaken Ryan; it’s like an exhibition match on a real fight with an even playing field. Indeed, Tim Bradley says that what Gervonta is doing is legalized “cheating” to help him win.
Ryan agreed to not only a 136-lb catchweight but a 10-lb rehydration clause for him to get the fight. If Ryan didn’t agree to give Tank’s two handicaps, he wouldn’t have gotten the fight.
Obviously, the double whammy of the catchweight and dehydration clause for the Tank-Ryan fight makes it difficult to view it as a real fight and not just another exhibition as we see from Tank’s former promoter Floyd Mayweather.
In other sports like the NFL, NBA, or NHL, you don’t have catchweight and rehydration clauses to weaken teams to give handicaps, as we’re seeing with Gervonta vs. Ryan, which makes the fight seem more like an exhibition than a true fight.
“When you accept an exhibition, you tell the world, ‘This is an exhibition’ and whatever it is. I like how Floyd [Mayweather Jr] can look directly at you and say, ‘This is an exhibition,'” said Bill Haney to Thaboxingvoice.
“You’re not trying to fool nobody. Look, I’ve been in the biggest events. I’ve had all the belts. This is an exhibition. That’s all. Be honest with the people,” said Bill about the Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia clash.
“I give Ryan his credit, but what I’m saying is when he wants to get back with his mom & his dad. What they’ve been doing is fighting for legacy and for belts and fought for national titles.
“So when they get back to the essence of that part of it, then that’s a conversation I’ll have about boxing. When you let Tank and you go with this Tank s**t, and you keep calling out these people, and you become an exhibition fighter where you’ll fight Manny Pacquiao, you’ll fight Tank at catchweights. You’ll do strange stuff.
“I don’t say he doesn’t have the talent, and I don’t say that Tank doesn’t have the talent. I just don’t understand what they’re doing right now. With all that everyone has did pushing boxing forward to legitimize boxing, the best fighting the best in the divisions.
“I just said, ‘What are we doing right here?’ If it’s not an exhibition. We can’t say it’s a real fight. We can’t say it’s a fight for something. Just leave it as it is, and whenever either fighter gets finished with their exhibition, and they want to do something, then we’ll talk about it.
“That’s what you make Tank out to be, a fighter that fights with weight situpulations? We don’t got to fight Tank. We can fight Shakur. Tank can keep doing exhibitions. He can pick another guy and give him some rehydration, dehydration.
“We’re not just suckers and we’re not just going for anything,” said Bill about Devin not willing to agree to Gervonta’s weight stipulations to try and weaken him to gain an advantage so he can win.
