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Tonight, the biggest fight the sport of boxing has featured in years will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. 28-0 Gervonta Davis will face 23-0 Ryan Garcia in a scheduled 12 round at the weight of 136 pounds. How big is this fight? Big enough to be the most talked about pitch in the sport even if no major titles are at stake. There’s a reason for that: Both fighters are young, brash, and can punch hard enough to knock down a wall.
To put that in perspective: Both men fought a total of 53 times without losing. Only six of those fights combined lasted until the final bell. This means that there is an almost 90% knockout ratio between fighters. That’s more than impressive considering where any man’s career is at. Consider the fact that Davis draws huge crowds and Garcia has a huge social media following that is in the millions and the hype becomes not only understandable, but justified. Oh, and neither seems to be a fan of the other. Garcia worked hard to get inside Davis’ head in the lead up to the fight and Davis pushed Garcia at the weigh-in. Suffice to say, tensions are running high heading into tonight.
On a relevant side note, this fight was not easy to pull off. Davis fights under the Premier Boxing Champions umbrella, which is managed by the enigmatic Al Haymon, a publicity-shy individual who is no less beloved by those who fight under the Premier Boxing Champions banner. Garcia, on the other hand, fights under the Golden Boy Promotions umbrella, which is run by former ring great Oscar De la Hoya (who, unlike Haymon, is definitely not shy about publicity). Rarely these days do big fights take place between fighters from different organizational fields.
All of this contemporary way of doing things has given boxing another in a historically endless line of black eyes. The fact that both Davis and Garcia pushed their respective teams to make this event speaks volumes for both. A result of this entity meeting is that tonight’s pay per view event, which will begin at 8:00 PM Eastern time, will be available on various outlets, such as Showtime Pay Per View, DAZN Pay Per View and PPV.com.
As for who will win:
There’s a reason I’m looking forward to this match. Like all great pairings, it begs the question of who will emerge victorious without providing concrete answers. The thing is, these guys are pretty evenly matched. Also, there is matter or power. All both men have to do is land hard once. Just once. Things might just buzz before abruptly collapsing to the canvas courtesy of an uppercut from Davis or a left hook from Garcia. It’s that kind of fight.
That said, I predict Davis will emerge victorious from the stoppage in the 10th. His footwork is better than Garcia’s, and in a fight of this nature, that will make all the difference. In short, Davis maneuvers in the ring more effectively than Garcia. This means that he will be better than Garcia at preparing to land the best shots. The reason I expect this to go into later rounds is simple: both men will be at their absolute best tonight, and it will take time and wear and tear and good old exhaustion before either fighter starts to really break up. vulnerable to attack.
So here it is: Davis in 10 in what may turn out to be more of a large-scale chess game than people expect.