“Tank” vs “KingRy”
Gervonta “Tank” Davis (28-0, 26KO) faces “King” Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19KO) on April 22 at the 20,000-capacity T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in what is all set to be the biggest fight of the year.
These rivals, who have 51 wins and 45 KOs between them, have been on a collision course for some time and the Mayweather-De La Hoya rivalry just makes it even tastier!
Trained by Calvin Ford, 28-year-old Davies is a three-weight world champion known for his explosiveness and power, which can often detract from his high ring IQ, something he doesn’t receive as much credit for. Like Lomachenko, he can collect data and spot patterns to exploit, like he did against Leo Santa Cruz to full effect.
When Santa Cruz tripled up with his straight right hand, he slipped on the outside and came up underneath with an hellacious left uppercut to knock him out cold. Davis knew the straight right hand was coming and allowed his man to throw it before executing the perfect fight-ending punch, which he pulled way back to allow it to travel a long distance to its mark.
Furthermore to testify to his ring intelligence, he often sets traps for his opponents to walk into and that was one of the most perfect examples there. He left his head on the firing line showing enough for Cruz to gamble on another right hand, then he punished him emphatically.
His defence and footwork are good, not great, however, his upper body movement and reactions are fantastic. He can slip and roll punches all fight long. Sometimes, with his smaller stature, he can be guilty of overreaching with his shots, but his last five victories have come against world class fighters with a combined record of 115-2-2, and he stopped them all.
When you look at his 28 opponents’ combined record of 469-125, it’s highly impressive, but then Garcia’s number of 347-100 works out just very slightly inferior, but not by much at all.
Trained by Joe Goossen, 24-year-old Garcia is known for his blistering speed that has won him millions of fans on social media, his huge following marvelling at both his KO reels and training camp footage where he shows off his exceptional hand speed and sharpness.
At 5’10”, Garcia is going to have a considerable height advantage over his rival. He will have a good four inches or more over the Baltimore boxer, as well as three inches in reach.
Like Davis, Garcia also doesn’t receive a lot of credit for his ring intelligence either. The former WBC Interim lightweight champ is a sharp counter-puncher and also clever at reading opponents and adjusting efficiently to gain success.
His weaknesses are that he attacks and defends in straight lines, which makes him easy to read and exploit. He’s also a stand-up tall fighter, that takes half steps in and out, leaving his head on the firing line for too long. He can sometimes be guilty of waiting too long to throw. When he was floored by Campbell in round two of their 2021 fight, the Brit threw over a dozen punches to Ryan’s single jab and one missed counter left hook over the course of about 50 seconds.
Many fight fans believe that Davis is the more complete package when it comes to boxing skills, as well as possessing the vaster experience and success at the top level, which is why the bigger man is the underdog in this bout, despite it being a 50-50 fight.
Betting Odds
Davis is the favourite to win at 4/9 with Betway, while Garcia is a 15/8 outsider. The draw is quite low at 14/1. “Tank” to win by KO is 8/11 and “KingRy” to score a knockout is 3/1.
Predictions
Davis is a product of his environment, he is a tough guy and one of boxing’s bad boys, often in trouble with the law and even has a court case pending.
For me, Garcia has more weaknesses than Davis that are more apparent and therefore more available to be exploited.
Whilst I can see Garcia perhaps taking a few early rounds and thrilling crowds with his speed, I’m expecting Davies to collect all the data he needs before using it to turn the fight in his favour and enjoy more success before picking out the fight-ending punch or punches he will need.
That said, Garcia is going to put on his best ever performance and will be a formidable force to be reckoned with. By all accounts, Davis should be poised to give his greatest performance too, notably keeping his family away from this fight so he can focus fully. So, both boxers are going to be in peak condition and zoned in on getting the victory Saturday night – what a treat!
I am leaning towards Davis, I prefer his fluid style, but I’m not writing off Garcia by any means.
Verdict: Davis to win by knockout between rounds 9-12.
