Ryan Garcia Says Tank Davis’ Power Is a Matter of Deception
On December 2, super lightweight boxer “King” Ryan Garcia (23-1, 19 KO’s) will try to hop back into the win column by facing Oscar Duarte Jurado. In his last duel, Garcia suffered his first professional loss to Regular WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis (29-0, 27 KO’s) by way of knockout. Despite being hit, temporarily crippled and stopped by a nasty body shot, King Ryan is not sold on his power.
As he explained on The Last Stand Podcast with Brian Custer, Garcia feels Tank’s high KO ratio is more due to punch placement than might.
“Surprisingly, not hard. And I know that Rolly [Rolando Romero] said this before, and a lot of people who got hit by him say that he doesn’t have a hard punch. He has pinpoint accuracy that if it hits you and you don’t see it coming, you’re going to get dropped, you’re going to get hurt. So he is being subtle, you don’t know when it could come and when it does come it’s too late.”
“So that’s how you knock people out; You don’t knock people out because you punch hard. You have to have power, of course, but you have to be deceptive – he’s pretty good at that. So I would say that his punching power is average, but he has deceptive shots that will catch you if you are not paying attention at all times.”
FACT OR CAP?
Naturally, the vast majority of folks who hear these words will write them off as hate at best or delusion at worst. If Tank has nothing else, he possesses formidable power. There is no shortage of his knockout reels littering social media to verify this fact. Furthermore, considering Davis stopped him, one would think that King Ryan would offer a greater measure of validation. Obviously, this was not the case.
To his credit, bottled in his gloves, King Ryan has a bit of pop of his own. So it would be favorable for him to shine brightly on December 2 by dominating Jurado. Ideally, he would stop him. This is especially the case since Jurado is anything but a household name and Garcia certainly needs the win and change in narrative.
SHOW AND PROVE!
Aside from being stopped in his last match, King Ryan was accused by many of quitting due to not continuing when he could have. Therefore, another loss, to an obscure fighter no less, could be a detrimental blow to his career. It’s no secret that Garcia commands a tremendous fan base, yet he still needs to win if he wants to be considered a serious player in the sport. A loss to Tank is not that detrimental. A loss to a “Johnny Who’s That?!” is quite different.
However, a win officially puts Garcia right back in the mix of potential big dances. In fact, if he wins in sensational enough fashion, he may get another crack at Davis to prove his point that Tank doesn’t hit that hard. First things being first though, let’s see what King Ryan gets done with Jurado.
