By Allan Fox: Shawn Porter suspects the praise by Golden Boy promoter Bernard Hopkins about Gervonta Davis recently was done to try and butter him up, so he’ll give Ryan Garcia a rematch in early 2024. Ryan needs that high-paying rematch with Tank before it’s too late.
If Ryan (23-1, 19 KOs) is going to be leaving Golden Boy Promotions soon, it makes sense for them to put him in the biggest money fight they can in early 2024, and that would probably be ‘The Face of Boxing’ Tank Davis rather than Devin Haney or Teofimo Lopez.
The rematch with Tank makes sense if this is a cash-out for Golden Boy, knowing they got to put Ryan in with the biggest money match available before he leaves the company or continues to get exposed as just a manufactured fighter who was never that good, to begin with.
“I couldn’t figure out if we were getting a ramp-up of a promotion to a second fight between Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia,” said Shawn Porter to ProBox TV reacting to Golden Boy promoter Bernard Hopkins saying that he has Gervonta Davis as pound-for-pound #1.
It sure makes sense for Hopkins to start smothering Tank Davis with compliments right now if the objective is to try and sweet talk him into giving Ryan Garcia a rematch that he doesn’t deserve but absolutely needs before his career completely falls apart.
Without the Gervonta rematch, Ryan will be fed to the hungry barracudas at 140, Teofimo & Haney, and his career won’t be worth anything. Yeah, the money Ryan will get fighting Teofimo or Haney will be good, but it won’t be on par with what he’d get fighting Tank.
“I know that Ryan put a Tweet out the other day, ‘Let’s run it back,’ and then you get his promoter Bernard Hopkins] who has never come out of his mouth and has never said anything in terms of soluting & praising Tank Davis to any degree whatsoever and then all of a sudden, he becomes pound-for-pound #1,” said Porter.
It’s easy to connect the dots when you look at the timing of Hopkins praising Gervonta around the same time that Ryan Garcia is asking for a rematch. You know it’s essential to get Ryan in the biggest money fight possible before it’s too late, be it him leaving Golden Boy or massecred by Teofimo.
Given the fodder-level guys that Tank Davis has been fed by Mayweather Promotions during his ten-year pro career, he doesn’t belong anywhere near the top of the pound-for-pound list unless we’ve lowered the standards for getting to that spot.
If beating the likes of Rolly Romero, Isaac Cruz, and Ryan Garcia is all the fighter needs to do to earn the #1 spot, it cheapens it.
“The only thing I could think is are they [Golden Boy Promotions] trying to get going a Ryan Garcia vs. Tank Davis rematch fight, and this is kind of how they’re starting this by talking this man [Gervonta] up, and if anything, trying to get him to soften his heart to get back in the ring with Ryan Garcia. Those are my thoughts,” said Porter.
“Bernard is very, very calculated. I wouldn’t be surprised,” said Chris Algieri.
It sure seems like Hopkins is trying to get the Ryan vs. Tank Davis rematch going because why else would he put Gervonta at the top of his pound-for-pound list with a weak resume like the one he has? How in the world do you put Tank Davis as your #1 pound-for-pound over Naoya Inoue when you’re best wins are against these guys?
- Ryan Garcia
- Rolly Romero
- Isaac Cruz
- Leo Santa Cruz
If Tank Davis had beaten guys like Shakur Stevenson, Haney, Teofimo, Vasily Lomachenko, William Zepeda, Frank Martin, and Regis Prograis, he would certainly deserve consideration as the #1 pound-for-pound.
Hopkins recently placed Gervonta Davis at the top of his personal pound-for-pound list, which some boxing fans felt was strange given that Tank has a weak resume and hadn’t done anything during his career that would place him above Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue.
Porter notes that Hopkins hadn’t been giving Tank Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) this high praise before, and he feels that the timing of his sudden complimenting suggests that he & Golden Boy are ramping up to get a lucrative rematch for Ryan Garcia in the first quarter of 2024.
Assuming Ryan loses to Teofimo or Haney in early 2024, you can forget about a rematch with Tank Davis at that point, as Ryan would have two defeats in his last three fights, and you couldn’t sell a rematch with the Baltimore native then.
Ryan would need to rebuild his career by beating solid contenders at 140, and it’s questionable whether he can do that. Beating Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero wouldn’t be enough.
