Looks like Ryan Garcia is looking past Luke Campbell with his eyes on Tank Davis
For Ryan “King Ry” Garcia (20-0, 17 KO’s), his next fight should be his toughest professional outing yet. At least, that is the way that it reads on paper. Of his previous opposition, Luke Campbell (20-3, 16 KO’s) by far is the most decorated on his resume.
The one sticking point is, of his three defeats, the UK bruiser has lost his two big step-up fights. Campbell lost one to Jorge Linares (47-5, 29 KO’s) and then later to Vasiliy “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KO’s). Garcia is convinced he will be the fourth strike on his ledger.
If the brash young Californian does get past Campbell, he already has his mind set for his next target. For his money, the best move after his January 2 showdown is a dust-up with regular WBA world lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis (24-0, 23 KO’s). Davis is still riding high on his October 31 one-punch destruction of Leo Santa Cruz (37-2-1, 19 KO’s). The two have previously talked about fighting one another on social media, but until now nothing has come of it.
“Actually, I’m gonna be quite honest, I wanna fight Gervonta next. That’s who I want. I wanna take on that man. I’ve been calling it for a while and that’s the fight. That’s the fight that would make me great, that’s the fight that will complete the puzzle that I have put together. That’s who I want and that’s who I’m gonna be striving to get. I’m gonna give the people what they want and I’m gonna put a whooping on him – I promise you that. After this fight, that’s the fight I’ll be looking to have. There it is.”
NO TIME FOR A DREAM
If Garcia defeats Campbell, it will put him in a much better position businesswise. King Ry has already amassed a tremendous fan following. By adding the UK scalp to his list of victims, he will have successfully legitimized his skill for the critics. Actually, a fight to ‘prove you’re the truth’ has largely evaded WBC world lightweight champion Devin “The Dream” Haney (25-0, 15 KO’s). And that is likely the true reason why Garcia would prefer a showdown with Davis rather than Haney.
In fact, King Ry is ranked #3 in WBC lightweight rankings, just two slots below Haney. Currently, he is not even ranked in the top 15 with the WBA. Similar to his social media back and forth with Tank, Garcia has spoken about his interest in facing the Dream. Yet, between the two, Davis is the juicer picks at the moment. Tank is coming off a viral knockout, it was on pay-per-view and he is an easy sell due to his power. Meanwhile, Haney is getting a tough time from all angles because of his lackluster resume. So it is really not hard to see why Davis is regarded as the more choice selection.
Yet, first things must come first. Before he can truly think about Davis, Garcia must beat Campbell. And one of the easiest ways to lose is looking up the street at the next fight!
“That’s who I’m coming after, big, bad Tank – the man who hits so hard, the man that crushes people’s face in. That’s the fight that I want to show everybody who I really am. After that, I want to fight Teofimo Lopez or Devin Haney or anybody, I don’t really care after that. Nobody matters as much as that fight with Tank. That’s the main fight.”
By: Bakari Simpson
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