In a highly-anticipated superfight between Gervonta “Tank” Davis and Ryan Garcia, Davis emerged as the clear winner, knocking out Garcia in the seventh round. The fight, held at the T-Mobile Arena in front of a sold-out crowd, was preceded by months of trash talk and hype. With his victory, Davis cemented himself as one of boxing’s pound-for-pound best fighters and a rising star in the sport.
The Fight
The fight was mostly tactical, with Davis attempting to time Garcia, who conceded 4.5 inches in height. Davis baited Garcia with feints as he looked to open him up. The punches were unleashed with blinding velocity and thudding power in a matchup that featured two of the sport’s most damaging finishers who also have some of the quickest hands. Despite their stardom, only Davis is a former champion, a title he won at 130 pounds in 2017 with a seventh-round TKO of Jose Pedraza.
Davis, as he pointed out before the fight, turned out to own a decisive edge in ring IQ. Despite being knocked down in the second round, Garcia showed resilience and rebounded to finish him with a left hand to the body in Round 7 in his career-best victory over Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell.
The Outcome
With a perfectly placed left hand from Davis, Garcia took a beat and then dropped to one knee, unable to beat the count. Referee Thomas Taylor reached the count of 10 at 1 minute, 44 seconds of Round 7, with Garcia still on one knee struggling to catch his breath. Davis’ victory came before 20,842 at the sold-out T-Mobile Arena, an anticlimactic but conclusive finish to boxing’s most-anticipated matchup in years.
Despite the loss, Garcia plans to fight the best fighters at 140 pounds, where he’ll chase his first world championship. Davis, on the other hand, should reach a new stratosphere on both boxing’s list of best fighters and even the hierarchy of stars across sports.
Nevertheless, Davis will have to answer to his legal troubles. He’s set to be sentenced on May 5 in his native Baltimore after he pleaded guilty to four charges in connection with a November 2020 hit-and-run incident that left four people injured, including a pregnant woman. The judge presiding over the case already rejected a plea deal that would have avoided jail time for Davis in lieu of house arrest. On May 26 in Broward County, Florida, Davis has his next court date following a December incident in which he was accused of battery.
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