By Sam Volz: Negotiations between Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and challenger Ryan Garcia are still dragging on without a deal.
Lance Pugmire says “nothing determined yet” between talks for the Tank vs. Ryan, which is not that surprising.
It’s going to be a tough matchup crossing the finish line, as WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Tank Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) has accomplished much more in his boxing career compared to Garcia (23 -0, 19 KOs).
Tank is not only a current world champion and former three-division champion, but he’s also a proven pay-per-view fighter. In contrast, the 23-year-old Ryan has turned down title shots and has never fought for a belt despite having opportunities.
What the promoted golden boy, Ryan Garcia, has going for him is his 9 million followers on Instagram. However, those fans aren’t necessarily boxing fans, and it’s unclear if they’d be willing to buy a Ryan-Tank Davis fight on pay-per-view.
I was told that “nothing is set yet” and that @RyanGarcia and @Gervontaa are “still in talks.”
— Lance Pugmire (@pugboxing) September 9, 2022
Considering the huge imbalance in the negotiation, it’s hard to imagine the fight between Tank and Garcia being made. You can always wait, but it’s not looking good right now.
For the Davis-Garcia fight to take place, Ryan will need to drop back down to 135, as that’s where Tank’s promoter, Floyd Mayweather Jr, wants the fight to take place.
Ryan’s last fight against former super featherweight champion Javier Fortuna was at 140 last July, and he looked good, stopping him in six rounds.
It would be better if Ryan had more experience and captured at least one world title before trying to negotiate a fight with Tank Davis, but that would be asking too much.
For Ryan to win a world title at 135, he would need to challenge undisputed champion Devin Haney and, thus far, he has shown no interest in doing so.
Ryan could potentially win a belt at 140, but given his ranking and the tough killers he’d need to beat to capture a title in that division, it’s questionable if that will happen.
You’d have to see Ryan thrown into the ring with dangerous punchers like Regis Prograis or Jose Zepeda. Those guys probably have too much experience and power for Ryan right now.
