Gervonta Davis views the rehydration restrictions in their contracts as a way to ensure fairness entering his high-profile fight against rival Ryan Garcia.
Davis has drawn criticism from Garcia, his opponent’s team and some fans for the contractual clause that prohibits the taller Garcia from weighing more than 146 pounds at a second-day weigh-in the morning of their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event April 22 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The contracted limit for their first weigh-in April 21 is 136 pounds, one above the maximum for the lightweight division.
Garcia, 24, and Davis, 28, both must weigh in again the morning of their fight. Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) and Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) can add as much weight as they want from the time of their second-day weigh-in until they set foot in the ring.
Baltimore’s Davis explained his rationale for demanding the rehydration clause during a recent appearance on Showtime’s popular show, “All The Smoke,” co-hosted by retired NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
“I mean, it’s just making sure everything’s fair,” Davis said. “You know what I mean? I know that he’s a bigger fighter. He already has the advantage off the height, the size, the arm length, like everything, he has the most advantage. So, I’m just making it a little fair. You know what I mean? Just everybody stay the same. And, I mean, it ain’t like he gotta go [to a second weigh-in] and I don’t have to go. We both have to go. You know what I mean?”
The 5-foot-10 Garcia weighed in exactly at the junior welterweight limit of 140 pounds for his last fight, a sixth-round knockout of Dominican southpaw Javier Fortuna (37-4-1, 26 KOs, 2 NC) on July 16 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The Victorville, California native weighed in at 138¾ pounds for his prior appearance, a 12-round, unanimous-decision defeat of Ghana’s Emmanuel Tagoe (32-2, 15 KOs) in April 2022 at Alamodome in San Antonio.
Davis fought at junior welterweight once, when he stopped former WBA world super lightweight champ Mario Barrios (27-2, 18 KOs) in the 11th round of their June 2021 bout at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. His official weight for the Barrios bout was 139¾ pounds.
Each of Davis’ last three fights have been contested at the lightweight maximum of 135 pounds. He weighed in at 134 pounds for his most recent action, a ninth-round technical knockout of Hector Luis Garcia (16-1, 10 KOs, 3 NC) on January 7 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
Garcia has complained publicly about the rehydration clause and other concessions he made to secure the fight he wanted most. The slight underdog contends that Davis will attempt to “weight drain” him by restricting Garcia to a second-day weigh-in for a non-title fight.
“I think it’s just him out there just spreading rumors and stuff like that, and people just adding on to it,” Davis said. “Everybody’s done it before. It’s a part of boxing. You know what I mean? It’s just they want me to be like somebody that’s like, I guess like a dumb ass. You know what I mean? For real.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.