Gervonta Davis Ryan Garcia Fight Top Takeaways

First things first, can we get a hallelujah and acknowledgment that sometimes, we do get nice things? The Gervonta Davis Ryan Garcia fight got made, made it to the runway, lifted off and happened. Yahoo! That in itself deserves celebration. Not of the sarcastic variety, ideally. Here are some of my other takeaways from the promotion, the fight, and the aftermath, which was in its own way sort of fascinating.

In no particular order:

***That was weird, promoter Oscar De La Hoya and his right hand man Bernard Hopkins, not attending the post fight presser. Same goes for trainer Joe Goossen.

Yes, there is a lengthy tradition, it probably goes back to Ancient Greece, everyone comes to the post fight presser, unless for health/safety reasons.

The losing fighter showed up, but much of his “crew” didn’t.

Ryan Garcia had his say, while promoter Oscar De La Hoya no showed the post fight presser. (Esther Lin photo)

I messaged Joe Goossen, who I’m sure has a solid explanation, to see if he’d share. I will insert a reply when furnished.

Maybe you saw the Bernard Hopkins “explanation” making the rounds. He talked to Sean Zittel, who asked B Hop why he didn’t attend the post fight presser. Hopkins’ response didn’t pass muster in the court rooms of social media. He didn’t have to go there and be part of a “circus.” But ya gotta take your lumps. It’s a bad look when you chirp and then bolt when your vision doesn’t come to fruition.

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***That Gervonta Davis Ryan Garcia fight finishing punch caught most all by surprise. That goes for Ryan Garcia and viewers, and even the crew ringside. “Another left hook and a right hand by Garcia,” said Mauro Ranallo as Garcia backed up, and took a knee in round seven. “Forced to take a knee!”

Yeah, Ranallo wasn’t sure what forced it, and watching live, I didn’t know either. We saw Ryan nod to the ref, as he heard “eight” as if to indicate, “I hear you, I heard 8, Ima get up.” He then winced, and couldn’t complete the action to stand up.

Gervonta Davis collected data and then used the info to launch the right punch at the right time. (Ryan Hafey photo)

Pretty sure someone in the truck informed Mauro what punch caused the stoppage. Ranallo compared the ending to the body-shot ending to the Oscar De La Hoya Bernard Hopkins fight in 2004.

Point being: It’s often real hard to see truly what’s happening in that ring in real time. Tank has fast hands, they were in tight, he wasted no motion in delivery the fateful blow. “I didn’t even see it, it was so quick, well timed,” said analyst Abner Mares. You and everyone else, bro.

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***The reality of the Floyd Mayweather Gervonta Davis relationship didn’t get discussed really in the lead to the bout. Nor on the Gervonta Davis Ryan Garcia fight night.

Oh my, those two have a history. The spice level therein I think was too much in the mind of people pondering whether to go there.

I was happy to see Floyd ringside rooting Gervonta on, and in the ring, looking legit happy to see his protege get the humongous win. Now, how much of that has to do with a cut of Gervonta earnings we presume goes to Floyd. But seriously, the transition from fighter to promoter can be crazy hard, more so when you were the It fighter of your era. Mayweather is proud, justifiably, of his place in the sport. And it got cringey at times when his shadow obscured Davis’ full skill set. Now, I think it’s fair to say, Gervonta holds his own space, and all is copasetic.

These guys have a history. But it looks like they have stayed OK despite bumps in the road. (Ryan Hafey photo)

In the lead-up, there was less focus on Gervonta’s outside the ring affairs than we’ve seen previously. Now, not sure what that indicates. It might have been that people covering were sufficiently intrigued by the matchup that there wasn’t as much room to cover “ancillary” topics. It may also be that we’ve gotten to a level of acceptance with bad boy behavior from many of our best and brightest?

Now, moving forward, there will, I think, be increased interest in Tank’s legal matters in the months ahead. His profile will have been raised, and now even more boxing fans are going to be curious about when he fights next. May 5, it turns out; he has a court date set for then, he gets sentenced for a hit and run.

I’m thinking that whatever sentence he receives, the show will go on. Even if he does get sentenced to a bit of time, he’d come out of that bigger than ever, mere blip on the screen.

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***It wouldn’t be boxing if we weren’t talking about the judges a day or two or more after a big scrap like the Gervonta Davis Ryan Garcia fight. Even with the stoppage, we got judge controversy, amazingly.

That’s because of, mainly, how round two of Davis Garcia was scored. Remember round 2? The first minute saw Ryan advance, and flurry a bit. Tank grabbed him once, twice…and the joint got amped. People at T-Mobile saw Ryan being aggressive, and Tank backing up, and holding. Was he in trouble? Not a stitch. Did Ryan win the first third of the round? Sure.

The second minute of the round, Ryan won that, too. Tank mostly moved, laterally, and that gave fans the perception that Ryan’s power was worrisome. Nah. Re-watch the round, and what you see is exemplary Davis ring generalship.

Then, right around the start of the last third of the round, BANG! Gervonta dropped an over-eager Ryan Garcia, and sent him to the floor. It was a counter left, Ryan was stepping in to land, he was squared up.

He got up right away.

The rest of the round, Ryan was mostly cautious, he’d been stung bad. Gervonta didn’t go nuts, in fact, to end the round, he was backing up again.

So, I scored it at home a 10-8 Davis round. I presume you did too. I presume most anyone watching did. But the three judges ringside didn’t. Dave Moretti, who maybe needs to yanked from rotation, scored the round even.

Wait, what?

Even with the stoppage, the work of the judges was discussed heavily following the outcome of the Gervonta Davis Ryan Garcia fight

Debate started up late that night, and more so Sunday. Judge fuckery, again. Tim Cheatham and Steve Weisfeld gave the round to Gervonta, but not by a two point margin. They both gave him a 10-9. People, that is really rare. For a judge not to score that sort of round 10-8 is really rare. And for a judge to score a round in which one man knocked down the other even, well, that’s beyond rare. Which is why chatter started and continues.

Basically, Moretti told you that the WAY Garcia competed aside from the sequence when he got knocked down was so impressive, it negated the impact and import of the knockdown. Cheatham and Weisfeld told you that they saw an even round, 10-10, but they rewarded Tank for the knockdown.

Yes, it happens, probably more than I’m aware, because all the cards on all the fights don’t get scrutinized. But lemme boil this down—that was dumb shit.

The only way Ryan Garcia deserved an even round in a round he got dropped would be if he screamingly obviously man-handled Tank during the time he was not being dropped. That just wasn’t the case.

CompuBox said Ryan went 7-30, while Tank went 3-6 in round two in the Gervonta Davis Ryan Garcia fight.

Yes, Tank was wildly efficient, but basically, he got punished for not throwing more. But what Dave Moretti truly doesn’t comprehend is this: Tank wasn’t being lazy, nor was Ryan being wickedly effective. Tank was collecting data, looking for tendencies. He found a tendency—Ryan over invested in his hook, and dropped his right hand while tossing it—and exploited it, hard. No, the numbers nor my eyes, on re-watch, tell me that was an even round, or a round Ryan “won,” apart from being dropped.

The scoring in round two struck people as curious, as well it should, because it deserves to be. Nope, not thinking there’s any conspiracy afoot. But Moretti, especially, needs remedial tutoring. Him telling you that what Ryan did in round two apart from getting knocked down warranted an even round is straight up nonsense. Dave Moretti maybe deserves to be informed You Don’t Know Shit About Boxing by his superiors, because that handling of that round stunk, bad.

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***The talk of a mole in the camp of Ryan Garcia, it feels immaterial to me.

Ryan Garcia posted this to Instagram after losing to Gervonta Davis

Props, I guess, to Team Tank for successfully planting seeds of doubt. But even if there was someone in the Ryan camp who was ferrying info to Team Tank, what would that person have seen and conveyed that wasn’t already apparent?

The way Garcia squares up, over commits, throws wide, leaves himself open to a quick counter puncher, that was all there for the seeing. No subterfuge needed to ascertain that, right?