By Adam Baskin: Ryan Garcia has put himself behind the eight ball by naively agreeing to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis’ team’s rehydration clause and 136-lb catchweight to get a fight against him on April 22nd on Showtime PPV.
The 10-lb rehydration clause means that both fighters can’t weigh above 146 lbs for the secondary weigh-in on the day of the fight. There’s still no word about what time that weigh-in will be conducted, but it’s believed it’ll be early in the morning.
Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs) is expected to be affected more by the rehydration clause than Tank because he’s bigger, and his last two fights have been in the 140-lb division.
Tank has been wildly criticized by boxing fans due him putting in the weight stipulations to give himself an advantage over Ryan to ensure that he wins. Tim Bradley of ESPN views the weight stipulations as “cheating” by Tank, indicating that he’s scared and apprehensive.
Not realizing that Tank would have likely fought him without those two weight handicaps, Ryan showed weakness by agreeing to them rather than telling him to get lost and move on with his career.
Without Ryan, Tank would be forced to fight Shakur Stevenson and Frank Martin, and he’d likely lose to both.
“One point I thought is Mario Barrios and Tank did fight him at 140, and there was no rehydration clause in that contract and no issues on what the weight was going to be,” said Akin Reyes to the DAZN Boxing Show.
“But obviously, Tank and his team think Garcia will be a threat if he hydrates too, in terms of power and in terms of size. That’s not a bad thing, it’s a smart thing, but it’s still a thing; there’s a worry factor, a concern, to try and get as much advantage as we can, starting with the weight.”
“We don’t know what time Ryan has to weigh-in [on the day of the fight]. It’s probably going to be in the morning. You still got the rest of the day to add a little bit more in your system.
“Rehydration clauses are pretty much that because the next day, you’re still making weight. You’re still trying to make weight the day of [the fight,” said Reyes about the rehydration clause being like how fights used to be conducted with weigh-in the day of the contest.
“Hopefully, this is earlier on where he [Ryan] can get his body to the best of his ability because psychologically, that can affect you. ‘Man, what can I eat?’ I’m pretty sure he has a great team and nutritionist to get him right.
“Hopefully, this is not a factor, and we get a 100% Ryan Garcia in the fight against Gervonta Davis,” said Reyes.
