Sean Cross
“April 22, 2023 Las Vegas has begun!” #DavisGarcia GOOOOO. “
And with this one-off tweet, Gervonta “Tank” Davis let the world know that a fight between him and Ryan Garcia is now officially done.
“APRIL 22nd SHOWTIME PPV AND DAZN PPV,” Ryan Garcia tweeted shortly afterwards. “LAS VEGAS NV”
Make no mistake about it: Davis-Garcia is a total character, dyed in the supervillain battle of the wool. Featuring two young, hard-hitting fighters who are undefeated and wildly popular in their prime, it’s the kind of thing the sport of boxing has been in desperate need of lately. Davis-Garcia will be at least within range of Wilder-Fury fights, but potentially much greater than that. Although it won’t be as profitable as Mayweather-Pacquiao or Mayweather-McGregor, the Davis-Garcia match could be the biggest boxing match since those two banks collapsed a few years ago.
Although it was clear that both men wanted to fight, there was some concern that tough negotiations would prevent it from becoming a reality. Garcia’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya assured the crowd that it was only a matter of time before things became official — and as of Friday, he was proven right. Credit to De La Hoya and PBC honcho Al Haymon for putting this together. In an age of promotional and broadcast entanglements, taking negotiations beyond the finish line was clearly no small feat.
As Garcia tweeted, the bout will be broadcast by Showtime pay-per-view and DAZN pay-per-view, with Showtime airing Davis’ fights and DAZN airing Garcia’s. The exact location of the bout has not been announced, but a catch weight of 136 pounds has been agreed upon by the fighter’s camps. The fight was originally expected to take place on April 15, suggesting that the lengthy negotiation process led to the event being pushed back by a week.
Davis finished 28-0 all but two of his fights at the distance while Garcia finished 23-0 all but four of his fights at close range. When fighters meet this powerful, fireworks can certainly be expected. With that being said, Davis will clearly be favored to win the bout, as he has won numerous world titles in several weight classes and has dealt with stronger competition than Garcia in the all-around. However, the kind of power Garcia possesses might turn things around – as long as Davis doesn’t get to him first.
