Sean Crose
“April 22, 2023 Las Vegas It’s on! #DavisGarcia GOOOOO.”
And with that single tweet, Gervonta “Tank” Davis let the world know that a fight between himself and Ryan Garcia has now officially been made.
“APRIL 22nd SHOWTIME PPV and DAZN PPV,” Ryan Garcia tweeted a bit later. “LAS VEGAS NV”
Make no mistake about it: Davis-Garcia is a full fledged, dyed in the wool superfight. Featuring two young, hard hitting, undefeated, and very popular fighters in their primes, it’s the sort of thing the sport of boxing is desperately in need of lately. Davis-Garcia will at least be on the scale of the Wilder-Fury fights, but may likely be much bigger. Although it won’t be as lucrative as Mayweather-Pacquiao or Mayweather-McGregor, Davis-Garcia may well be the biggest match in boxing since those two bank breakers went down some years back.
Although it was clear both men wanted the fight, there was beginning to be some concern that difficult negotiations would keep it from becoming a reality. Oscar De La Hoya, Garcia’s promoter, had assured the public that it was only a matter of time before things became official – and, as of Friday, he’s been proven right. Credit to both De La Hoya and PBC honcho Al Haymon for putting this one together. In an age of promotional and broadcast entanglements the act of bringing the negotiations beyond the finish line was obviously no small thing.
As Garcia tweeted, the match will be broadcast by both Showtime pay per view and DAZN pay per view, as Showtime broadcasts Davis’ fights and DAZN broadcasts Garcia’s. An exact location for the bout hasn’t been announced, but a catch weight of 136 pounds has been agreed upon by the fighter’s respective camps. The fight was originally expected to take place on April 15th, which indicates the lengthy negotiation process led to the event being pushed back a week.
The 28-0 Davis has ended all but two of his fights within the distance while the 23-0 Garcia has ended all but four of his fights within the distance. When fighters with this kind of power meet, fireworks can certainly be expected. With that being said, it’s obvious Davis will be favored to win the match, as he has won several world titles in several weight classes and has dealt with stronger competition than Garcia has all around. Yet the kind of power Garcia possesses might just even things out – so long as Davis doesn’t get to him first.
