Ryan Garcia: When I Beat Tank Davis, I Will Feel Like A Champion, Regardless If He Has A Real Belt
BY KEITH IDEC
Published Thu Jul 21, 2022, 08:23 AM EDT
Fighting for world titles isn’t the least bit important to Ryan Garcia.
If their handlers overcome obstacles that could prohibit him and Gervonta Davis from fighting next, the hard-hitting Garcia won’t consider their pay-per-view fight any less significant because they won’t fight for a world title. Davis owns the WBA’s secondary lightweight championship, but Garcia began demanding after he weighed in Friday for his sixth-round knockout of Javier Fortuna on Saturday night that Davis must move up to the junior welterweight limit of 140 pounds to make their fight a reality.
Baltimore’s Davis stopped San Antonio’s Mario Barrios in the 11th round of their June 2021 bout in Atlanta to win the WBA world super lightweight championship. The powerful southpaw, who has boxed almost exclusively in the junior lightweight and lightweight divisions in nine years as a pro, has since relinquished that secondary 140-pound title.
Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs), of Victorville, California, would be just fine if he signs a contract for a 12-round, non-title showdown versus Davis (27-0, 25 KOs).
“You guys could complain about belts all you want,” Garcia told DAZN’s broadcast team of Chris Mannix, Sergio Mora and Shawn Porter. “And that’s not a shot at any organization. It’s just, to me, the belts are diluted. It’s like putting water in alcohol. It’s not gonna hit right.”
Garcia has only owned the WBC interim lightweight title during his six-year pro career, but he was stripped of that title when he withdrew from a fight with Fortuna that was scheduled for last July 9 to focus on his mental health. A year later, the boxer nicknamed “King Ry” isn’t the least bit concerned about adding recognized crowns to his resume.
“Me winning championships is gonna just give people more ammo to be like, ‘Oh, Ryan’s this,’ ” Garcia said. “I don’t care about that. I need to know, in my heart, I beat the guy that I feel is the champion. If I beat Tank Davis, or when I beat Tank Davis, I will feel like a champion, regardless if he has a real belt or not. I will feel like a champion because the name carries weight, his name carries weight. To me, he’s a great fighter. I would actually be a fan of him if I wasn’t, you know, a fighter, because I like how he fights and I have respect for him, and I think he’s a great fighter. But I think I’m a better fighter. That’s it.”
The 23-year-old Garcia’s past two fights have been contested within the junior welterweight division.
He knocked Fortuna (37-4-1, 26 KOs, 2 NC) to the canvas three times – once apiece in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds – on his way to a sixth-round knockout of the Dominican southpaw at Crypto.com Arena. Garcia went the distance in his previous fight, a 12-rounder in which he out-pointed Ghana’s Emmanuel Tagoe (32-2, 15 KOs) unanimously April 9 at Alamodome in San Antonio.
Nobody should be a fan of this guy....like at all
@ “feel like a champion”
tryin to be free
