By Allan Fox: Former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr says Ryan Garcia “could have” and “should have” gotten up and went out on his shield in the seventh round of his fight against Gervonta Davis last Saturday night.
Kambosos feels that Ryan (23-1, 19 KOs) looked well enough to continue fighting after getting back up following the referee counting him out after he’d been dropped by a body shot from Tank Davis (29-0, 27 KOs).
Many people agree with Kambosos that Ryan looked like he was physically capable of fighting on after he sprang back to his feet and walked back to his corner in the seventh. He wasn’t wincing and looked fresh when he got up.
Many boxing fans feel that Ryan was happy to take his $15 million for the fight and move on to his next fight. Mission accomplished, in other words.
Ryan had campaigned mightily like a politician running for office to get the fight with Tank Davis and showed no interest in taking risky fights along the way to earn it by facing Frank Martin, Shakur Stevenson, Isaac Cruz, or Devin Haney.
Had Ryan gotten up and continued fighting, he would have received less flak from the fans, even if Tank immediately knocked him out. At least he would have shown that he was willing to fight until the bitter end.
“It wasn’t a super exciting fight. It was a smart fight. I think Ryan got a little excited in round two when he thought he was hurting him. He hit him with some good shots and then got caught,” said Kambosos Jr to Fighthype, giving him thoughts on Gervonta Davis’ win over Ryan Garcia.
“Tank is very smart in what he does. He’s a guy that will line you up and catch you nice. After that, I think he went into his shell, Ryan Garcia, and it was just a matter of time.
“I was watching with a few people, and I said, ‘It’s just a matter of time before he goes to sleep.’ The way it happened, the finish, I know a body shot it a body shot, and they hurt. I get it, but could he have got up and gone out on his shield? I believe so.
“He got up as soon as the referee said, ‘Ten.’ I’m not here disrespecting Ryan. He’s a great kid; we’ve spoken many times. There’s respect there. He’s got to go through himself now and ask himself questions. ‘Could I have got up?’
“I know on my side that if I got hit with a body shot, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get up, and then you can take my head off clean. I just feel that he should have got up, could have got up, and do whatever.
“Put your hands up and get knocked out. Go out on your shield. It’s a big fight. You might have gotten a little more respect on that side where people have to question this, but who knows? It might have been a devasting body shot, and he was done.
“The public doesn’t demand obviously a rematch. With that kind of fight, he’s going to go to 140. He’s a very big name, and we’ll see what happens with him.
“What is his confidence going to be moving forward? Who is the guys at 140 for him to fight? Obviously, there are some big names. What kind of fights is he going to jump into? We’ll have to see. It’s an interesting time in his life.
“I have to focus on what I’ve got to do. He’s coming off a loss, and I’m coming off of two losses against the #1 in the division [Devin Haney],” said Kambosos.
