Shakur Stevenson says Ryan Garcia shouldn’t complain about rehydration clause for Gervonta Davis fight

By Boxing News - 03/20/2023 - Comments

By Allan Fox: Shakur Stevenson doesn’t agree with the way that Ryan Garcia is complaining in the media about the 10-lb rehydration clause for his April 22nd fight against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis on Showtime PPV.

Shakur feels that since Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs) signed the contract agreeing to the rehydration clause so he could get the chance to fight the superstar Gervona (28-0, 26 KOs), he is out of line complaining about it after the fact.

If Ryan wasn’t happy about the rehydration clause, he should have rejected it during the negotiation period or negotiated for a higher limit instead of signing for it and then complaining to the media like a victim.

To Stevenson, the fact that Ryan is complaining so much about the rehydration clause just seems like he’s making an excuse before he loses the fight.

In other words, Ryan is making an excuse to come up with a reason to pass off to the fans for why he will lose the fight against Tank in their main event clash at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Ryan Garcia is “weak” for complaining

“I look at that fight as the biggest in boxing, but I wouldn’t say it’s the best fight,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fighthype on the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Ryan Garcia clash. “I wouldn’t say it’s the best fighting the best. I think Tank is one of the best, for sure.

“I don’t think Ryan is on that level where I can call him the best, but I can still look at it like it’s the best fight in boxing that can be made. Hopefully, the fight will be as good as the hype,” said Stevenson.

Ryan hasn’t done much in terms of fighting quality opposition during his career, and he’s pretty much getting the fight with Tank based on his large social media following. He has over 9 million Instagram followers, many being teenage girls rather than boxing fans.

The only notable fighters on Ryan’s seven-year professional resume were Javier Fortuna and Luke Campbell, a couple of old guys past their prime. When Ryan had opportunities to fight Devin Haney, Mercito Gesta, and Jorge Linares, hie balked and chose not to face them.

“I don’t want to hear that s**t. He signed up for it,” said Stevenson about Ryan Garcia having signed the contract agreeing to the rehydration clause for the Tank Davis fight.

“When you sit down and sign the contract. They say,  ‘You got the rehydration clause,’ and you say, ‘Yes.’ You can’t get on a press conference and keep going everywhere and complaining about it. That’s weak to me because you signed that.

“That’s what you wanted. That’s the only thing I don’t respect about that. I don’t want to hear that s**t because once you sign that contract, you’re doing what you have to make the fight happen. There ain’t no complaining.

“When I signed the contract knowing that [Oscar] Valdez was getting more money than me, I didn’t complain about the s**t. You didn’t hear me up there, ‘Well, I took the.’  No, it happened. Cool. On to the next.’

“Now, I’ve put myself in a better situation for bigger money. I don’t agree with complaining about that s**t when you signed it. If you didn’t want to sign it, you should have sat there and negotiated for something else. You should have negotiated for a higher weight, maybe or no rehydration clause.

“I should have been okay with your decision, but now it looks bad. You keep complaining. It looks like an excuse before the fight. You’re giving an excuse.  So how confident are you going into the fight with that on your back?” said Shakur.

It is weak that Ryan is complaining nonstop about the rehydration clause, seemingly planting the seed for an excuse to give the fans when he loses to Tank.

Taking risks is essential

“Win by any means necessary. That’s all I know, and that’s all I think,” said Stevenson. “Scare money to make money. So you got to take risks. When fighters like Teofimo and Lomachenko, for example, fight each other, they are both high-commodity fighters. The person that loses, I have nothing but respect for them because they signed up to fight each other.

“They put themselves at risk and bet on themselves. So just because you fail, I don’t look at it like that’s bad. That’s why I went away from loving the sport because of the fact that boxing isn’t like it used to be.

“The Sugar Ray Leonards and Robert Durans, they can have losses and fight each other a thousand times, and they were Guggi. They were legendary. Nowadays, I guess because it was the Floyd Mayweather era, and he went undefeated. Fighters have to be undefeated now.

“So now people are scared to take fights. It’s a lot more ducking. It’s like a whole a** lame a** generation. That’s always the goal. That’s what I’m going in there to do, for sure,” said Stevenson about trying to stay undefeated in his career.

“I don’t take anything away from fighters that go in there and put everything on the line, and they lost. I’ve got nothing but respect for them fighters because they put it all on the line.

“I can’t take nothing away from those dudes. I respect it.  I know the business side of me. The Tank-Ryan would be more for me to go after, but then the champion, the person that went and won all the belts at 130, and the person that was champion at 126. That person feels, ‘I need to be undisputed by fighting the winner of Haney vs. Lomachenko.’

“I know how great of a fighter I am. I don’t have no insecurities when it comes to fighting anybody. There are two sides of me. I got a business side. ‘Let’s go in that direction.’

“Then I got the legacy side.  ‘Okay,  I want to go down as a great. This will be better for going down as a great.’ So there are two sides,” said Shakur.

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