T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas – Ryan Garcia offered no excuses after suffering the first defeat of his pro career.
On Saturday night, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) knocked out Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) in the seventh round with a solid body shot.
The bout was fought at a catch-weight of 136-pounds.
Garcia went down in the second after trying to rush Davis, who caught him with a big right hand over the top.
The end came in the seventh, when Davis landed a solid left hand right to the body, which forced Garcia back in pain. A delayed reaction with Garcia going down to a knee and taking the full count of ten from the referee.
There was a lot of talk in the promotion of the fight, but Garcia praised Tank for his performance.
He says the shot to the body did enough damage where he couldn’t fully recover by the count of ten.
“I’m good. Tank is a great fighter. I take my hat off to him. I know we talked a lot of trash leading into the fight, but he knows what it is. It’s all love at the end of the day. I was honored to be in the ring with a great fighter and I respect him a lot. You know how the business goes. But I want to say to Tank, you’re a good man,” Garcia said.
“He just caught me with a good shot. I don’t want to make any excuses in here. He caught me with a good shot and I just couldn’t recover and that’s it. He caught me with a good body shot, snuck under me and caught me good. I couldn’t breathe. I was going to get back up, but I just couldn’t get up.
“I think I should have pressured him a little harder near the ropes. I was giving him a little bit too much respect and I think that was my downfall. I think I gave him a little too much respect in the ring.”