By Matt Lieberman: Oscar De La Hoya says Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis’ team didn’t have the confidence in their fighter to let him fight Ryan Garcia without a weight stipulation to give him some badly-needed help for their fight next Saturday on April 22nd on Showtime PPV.
(Photo credit: Ryan Hafey/Premier Boxing Champions)
Therefore, Tank Davis’ team added two separate weight stipulations to try and help him win by including a 136-lb catchweight and 10-lb rehydration clause with a limit of 146 lbs on the morning of the fight April 22nd.
Whether Gervonta’s team considered what the backlash would be over the weight stipulations or simply didn’t care is unclear. This kind of thing happens when people substitute fear for reason.
Gervonta’s team isn’t confident
“He looks good at the weight. The weight is going to be no problem,” said Oscar De La Hoya to Fighthype about Ryan Garcia not having any problems making the 136-lb catchweight and dealing with the 10-lb rehydration clause for the Gervonta Davis fight.
“If people thought this or that, no issue whatsoever. He’s a professional. He knows what he has to do,” Oscar continued about Ryan about dealing with the weight stipulations that the nervous Tank inserted into the contract as a condition for Kingry getting the fight.
“This is his moment to shine, just like it’s Gervonta’s moment to shine. That’s why I love this fight because it’s such an event fight. I love this competition. This is what it’s all about.
“It’s not the same styles, but it’s like me and [Felix] Trinidad, for instance,” said De La Hoya when asked what the Tank vs. Ryan fight reminds him of. “We were undefeated; we were at the top of our game; we were both young. We were knocking everybody out.
“This is kind of like our fight to save boxing, and I guess we’re going to do it again. I don’t think Gervonta wants that smoke at 140,” said De La Hoya when asked if he thinks the rematch between Tank and Ryan will take place at 140.
De La Hoya is going a bit too far, saying that Tank-Ryan is the fight that saves boxing. It’s not big enough for one, and the match-up could be a massive disappointment if it’s not competitive and we see Ryan blown out of the water.
“It’s huge. One pound is huge,” De La Hoya said when asked if five pounds makes a big difference between the 135 and 140-lb weight classes. “Listen, there’s a reason why they [Team Tank] have that rehydration clause. There’s a reason. Gervonta’s team is not confident they can beat him at 135. So they have to have that rehydration clause.
“They’re kind of like, ‘Oh s**t, what did we get ourselves into?’ Because Ryan is going to make the weight easy. It’s going to be no problem. Yeah, we’ll see.
“I can say this, that, and that, but come fight night, they step in the ring, and they’re going to do their thing,” De La Hoya said.
Tank vs. Ryan rematch possible for Allegiant Stadium
Easy, no doubt. The rematch can be at the Allegiant Stadium, yeah. No doubt about it,” said De La Hoya when asked if it’s possible that the Tank vs. Ryan fight can be staged in an NFL stadium like the 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
“The big indication was how fast it sold out. Therefore, this fight is going to do huge numbers. I don’t know what numbers, but it’s going to be huge. A rematch would obviously be bigger than that. So let’s put this one in Allegiant Stadium next. I’m looking forward to that,” said a gleeful-looking De L Hoya, already talking about the Gervonta vs. Garcia rematch location.
