To even the staunchest of Ryan Garcia’s supporters, his bold threats aimed in the direction of Gervonta Davis appeared ludicrous. However, following years of thunderously claiming that he’ll do a number on the hard-hitting star, the 24-year-old Garcia will be given the opportunity to prove himself.
On April 22nd, in front of what’s expected to be a jam-packed crowd, Garcia and Davis will lock horns in the center of the ring. In spite of his hubris-filled war of words, Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) is viewed as an underdog in the eyes of the betting public.
Although his chances of pulling off the upset are being viewed as minuscule according to most, Canelo Alvarez, his former stablemate, isn’t willing to go that far. Having trained side by side with the former interim lightweight titlist on countless occasions, the pound-for-pound luminary recently revealed that as long as Garcia puts in the work behind the scenes, he’ll be just fine.
“He needs to do his job and train 100%,” said Alvarez to FightHype.com during an interview. “He’s a good fighter. Ryan is a very good fighter. He’s a very talented fighter.”
Despite his aforementioned talent, Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) is banking on his deleterious knockout power during their April 22nd showdown. In his most recent trip to the ring, the Baltimore native brutalized Hector Luis Garcia, stopping him at the tail end of their January 7th contest.
More times than not, Davis has found a way to detonate a violent blow on the chin of his opponents, no matter how much success they’ve experienced in previous rounds. Yet, even with Davis finding that fight-ending blow time and time again, Alvarez doesn’t believe that the former multi-divisional titlist will have a walk in the park come fight night.
In fact, with Garcia displaying his own violent knockout power, most recently against Javier Fortuna, Alvarez urges Davis to approach their clash with extreme caution.
“He needs to be very careful with Ryan because he’s a strong and very fast fighter.”