Although Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Garcia look like they are fighting, it’s still boxing.
On Nov. 17, both Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia took to social media to announce that they’d agreed to fight each other All in the sport agree that it will be a huge fight at super-lightweight if it proceeds.
Davis went so far on Twitter to say the fight was “signed sealed delivered…done.”
But Oscar De La Hoya, the Hall of Fame fighter and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, created somewhat of a commotion on Saturday when he put out a tweet issuing a Monday demand for a signed contract from the Premier Boxing Champions and Davis or he would walk away and the fight wouldn’t happen.
This tweet caused a lot of eyebrows. However, De La Hoya took a picture with Garcia on Tuesday in the GBP offices, holding what appeared to have been a contract. He wrote on Instagram, “Devil is in the details. April 15 let’s go!!!” He then tagged Garcia and Davis in the post.
Yahoo Sports reached Eric Gomez, the president of Golden Boy, who confirmed that the deal had been made by PBC and that the lawyers were working on it.
This means that the fight is now officially arranged. Stephen Espinoza, the president of Showtime Sports, used to be De La Hoya’s attorney and negotiated many of his fight deals. Fight Hub TV was told by Espinoza that De La Hoya could sign deals as late in the week as the fight.
Espinoza claimed that everything was agreed upon by Davis and Garcia in November, when they tweeted it was complete.
“On the day that they had announced it, the fighters announced that they had a deal, everyone was in agreement — DAZN, Golden Boy, Showtime, PBC — everybody was comfortable with the fighters saying, ‘We have a deal,’” Espinoza told Fight Hub. “So why a couple of days later it changed, it’s a mystery to me.”
Although the fight between Davis and Garcia is the first of three big-bounts boxing fans have eagerly awaited, none of them are finalized. Davis-Garcia is the closest to the finish line. However, there are still some details to finalize a deal. the undisputed heavyweight title between unified champion Oleksandr Usyk and lineal champion Tyson Fury.
More problematic is a bout for the undisputed title of welterweight between Errol Spence Jr., unified champion, and Terence Crawford, WBO champion.
Davis and Garcia deserve kudos for demanding that their teams fight. It’s a fascinating battle which will probably see Davis as the favorite given his experience.
What Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia could play out
Davis is ranked 10th in the Yahoo Sports pound-for-pound list He is generally considered to be one of the 15 best players in the world. Garcia isn’t ranked, but his speed and power make him a credible threat to Davis.
Garcia is 23-0 and has 19 knockouts. He’s not the hard, thudding puncher that Davis is, but he generates his power from his blazing quick hands. He’ll have the faster hands and better feet and Davis will have the better power.
For Garcia to win, he’ll have to control the distance, keep Davis on the end of his jab and avoid mistakes. He’ll need to keep the fight in the center of the ring and punish Davis whenever he tries to slip inside.
Davis has more flexibility. He’s a much smarter fighter than he’s given credit for and defensively, he’s become adept at slipping punches as he’s working his way inside.
He’ll need to regularly touch Garcia to try to slow him down. He doesn’t need to be racking up the rounds on the scorecards because he has that home run-type power that could end a fight at any moment with one shot.
Davis must make Garcia aware of his power, and not allow Garcia to fire at Garcia from the outside with no repercussions.
The great thing is, it’s an important fight for the division. It’s likely to do significant business, somewhere along the lines of 500,000 to around 650,000 pay-per-view buys and with a paid gate if it’s at T-Mobile Arena that could do as well $10 million, if not a little more. And it’s a fight that boxing fans want to see.
The schedule in the first quarter is sparse, and there’s next-to-nothing on tap to get fans excited.
There will be plenty of excitement at a Davis-Garcia fight.
All of the involved entities tweeted Nov. 17 that the fight was on. It looked official. This being boxing, weird things happen sometimes and it’s always wise to be cautiously optimistic until things are officially official.
This isn’t going to be a fight that will, ahem, save boxing or one that will change the course of history. But it’s going to be a fun, competitive fight that fans have been clamoring to see and should thoroughly enjoy.
At the end of the day, it’s never a bad thing to listen to and then satisfy one’s customers.