Despite his popularity and penchant for calling him out, Gervonta Davis never appeared quite interested in taking Ryan Garcia up on his brazen offers. In part, Davis’ reasoning behind his unwillingness to fight Garcia, stemmed from both Garcia’s inexperience and age.
Nevertheless, as the years have slowly ticked by, Garcia’s development has caught the attention of Davis. Now, having proved his worth, Davis not only welcomed the idea of facing his longtime rival, he officially inked his name on the dotted line.
In just over a month, the two will lock horns in the center of the ring on April 22nd, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, at a catchweight of 136 pounds. When last seen, Garcia was busy putting on a show.
In his second appearance of 2022, Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) made it look incredibly easy against Javier Fortuna, dropping the former multi-divisional titlist on multiple occasions before stopping him in the sixth round.
Considering his recent outing, coupled with his overall improvement, Davis is officially of the belief that their upcoming showdown is coming at the perfect time.
“I think he’s at his peak right now,” said Davis to BoxingScene.com when asked if he believes Garcia is finally ready to share the ring with him. “It’s probably now or never.”
In the midst of Garcia laying waste to his competition, Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) hasn’t sat idly by. After shutting the mouth of Rolando “Rolly” Romero in July of 2022, Davis kicked off his 2023 in a major way. On the first weekend of the new year, the hard-hitting star out of Baltimore, Maryland, took on Hector Luis Garcia. Although their clash was initially a close one, Davis eventually found the fight-ending blow at the end of the eighth frame.
Still, even with Davis proving that his power is more than capable of saving the day, he acknowledges that Garcia is an adversary that he must take seriously.
“He’s legit.”