American WBA ‘Regular’ Lightweight champion Gervonta Davis scored a magnanimous knockout victory over Ryan Garcia last Saturday to cement his status as the biggest star in American boxing. His April 22nd match with Garcia, held at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, resulted in a stupendous 7th round knockout which came by way of a puncturing liver/body shot that forced Garcia on his knees and resulted in him failing to beat the count of ten that followed.
In a match that was said to determine the new face of American boxing — following near two decades of dominance by Floyd Mayweather Jr., it was Mayweather’s own former pupil, Gervonta Davis (29-0, 27 KO’s), who would net a pivotal victory over Ryan Garcia (23-1, 19 KO’s) who himself can be regarded as a new incarnation of boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya, who had perhaps been Mayweather’s most relevant rival, after Manny Pacquiao, and certainly was considered Mayweather’s main rival when it came to American boxing.
With Ryan Garcia fighting under the Golden Boy Promotions brand — which was founded and headed by Oscar De La Hoya, and Gervonta Davis having fought nearly his entire career under the Mayweather Promotions banner, their match signified more than just a clash between two fighters, but also a clash between two brands that have been known to dominate American boxing for a time since their founders were active professionals.
The corresponding fight night did not leave any illusions as to who won the battle following seven rounds of a title match that was originally scheduled for twelve rounds in total. Though Gervonta Davis’ WBA Lightweight title wasn’t on the line, the careers of both fighters did seem to hang in the balance with the two sporting perfect undefeated records. Given both had been known as prospects for a long time, their battle was also said to decide who would become the next face of boxing, and the two finally competed against each other on April 22th in a non-title bout held at 135 lbs.
Up until the second round, the two seemed to be quite evenly-matched with both Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis showing shades of the bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. years ago when Garcia slipped into an aggressive approach which saw him pressuring Davis intensely, while Davis adopted a classic counterpunching style while remaining on the backfoot.
Despite Ryan Garcia stepping his foot on the gas pedal and coming out with lightning-quick combinations, Gervonta Davis seemed to be able to handle most of them, and the couple that did land cleanly did not seem to buzz him thoroughly. In the second round, Davis seemed to find a chink in Ryan Garcia’s armor and capitalized on a left hook from Garcia — which he rolled under — by countering with a left hook of his own that sent Ryan Garcia to fall on the canvas, resulting in a knockdown for Davis.
To his credit, however, Garcia got up within seconds to continue the fight and continue lunging at Davis. With Davis refusing to push through and pressure Garcia, the Baltimore-born fighter instead seemed to take a patient approach as he let Ryan Garcia recover and come back into the fight with a renewed vigor, almost.
The next of the rounds seemed to go in the favor of Gervonta Davis who by the third round was now countering more effectively even with Ryan Garcia continuing to stalk after Davis. Neither seemed particularly effective with their jabs, but neither of the two fighters lacked in activity with both fighters landing almost 50% of their thrown power shots.
In the seventh, it was Gervonta Davis who had proven to be most effective with his punches as evident when he dropped Ryan Garcia for the second time with another counter shot; this one a hard liver shot that forced Garcia on his knees.
Ryan Garcia failed to beat the count to 10 after his second knockdown, and the fight was ruled a knockout victory for Gervonta Davis as a result. Pundits and correspondents alike seemed to confirm afterwards that Gervonta Davis had become the ‘face’ of boxing after his victory over Ryan Garcia after years of American boxing, in the wake of Floyd’s retirement, grasping to decide who carried the longstanding tradition of being a household name.
The event also featured a co-headlining match between another WBA ‘Regular’ world champion at 168 lbs, David Morrell (9-0, 8 KO’s) and the stand-in for Morrell’s original slated opponent in Yamaguchi Falcao (24-2-1, 10 KO’s) who replaced Ghanaian Super Middleweight Sena Agbeko (27-2, 21 KO’s) — after he could no longer compete due to a set of unique circumstances.
Needless to say, Falcao was no match for Morrell who has been on a tear in the Super Middleweight division by stopping every opponent he’s faced bar one. As a late-time backup, though Falcao would be considered a decent or even legitimate contender in any other case, the late circumstances surrounding Falcao substituting for Agbeko just a week before the fight, meant that a much less prepared version of Falcao faced a thoroughly-prepared Morrell.
That resulted in a first-round knockout for David Morrell who thereby retained his WBA ‘Regular’ Super Middleweight title, but will likely not have much to celebrate about given he had not faced a challenge that was properly trained for a twelve-round match.
Morrell may, however, finally gain a chance to prove himself against a worthy opponent in David Benavidez (27-0, 23 KO’s) — who is as of yet undefeated and arguably one of the most recognizable faces of American boxing today, after Gervonta Davis — after stating his intention to face the ‘Mexican Monster’ in a post-match interview with FightHype.
“Maybe like this year, me and Benavidez will fight.” The Cuban fighter asserted in his interview, while initially responding positively to the possibility of fighting David Benavidez in September of this year.
The prospect of Gervonta Davis fighting two of the Lightweight’s biggest and best names— the Lightweight division’s undisputed champion, Devin Haney (29-0, 15 KO’s), and the essential ‘dark horse’ of the division, Shakur Stevenson (20-0, 10 KO’s) — who are also American and have, like Davis, recently shredded the label of prospect to become regarded as rightful world-level boxers.
With both of Davis’ prospective opponents being American, he might soon be embroiled in another domestic match-up that will undoubtedly put his new status as the ‘face of (American) boxing’ on the line.
