Top fighters face off in ring

By Mikai Bruce

April 22, lightweight boxers Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis faced off in the ring and were scheduled for a 12-round bout. Garcia and Davis have been on a collision course for quite some time and this was the most sought after fight boxing has seen in a long time.

Davis and Garcia had been feuding for quite some time before this fight was scheduled. It all began on social media, with each boxer going after the other in an attempt to goad him into a fight.

In the world of boxing, there is an emphasis on having an undefeated record because losing fights makes your stock as a fighter take a hit. Fighters often cherry pick fights that they know they have a great chance in so they can pad their records. These days, it’s somewhat rare for two top fighters to agree to fight and potentially blemish their records, but that’s what made this fight such a big draw. 

Both fighters are at the top of their profession with undefeated records going into the fight. Garcia had a record of 23-0 and Davis had a record of 28-0. Garcia is from California and Davis comes from Baltimore but both have dominated their division to the point that the next fight that made any sense was against each other. 

Any other fight would have been pointless and drawn claims among fans that the two fighters were avoiding each other, Garcia especially had been accused of fighting lesser opponents, and Davis had just come off of fighting Rolly Romero — arguably, the third best boxer in the division. 

Going into the fight, Davis was the favorite due to his superior boxing skill and experience, despite him being the shorter fighter with shorter reach. Davis stands at 5-feet-5-inches with a reach of 67 and a half inches, and Garcia stands at 5-feet-8-inches with a reach of 70-inches. Physically, Garcia had the advantage, but ultimately it didn’t help him win the fight.

Round one began and Garcia came out hot and threw more than triple the amount of punches that Davis threw. 

This led to Garcia landing more punches, although they were just jabs. Davis threw only seven punches in the first round. Davis began the fight slowly, as he is known to do, so that he could get a feel for the strategy that Garcia was going to deploy against him. 

He succeeded: He was mapping out the punches Garcia was throwing and figuring out the timing he needed to successfully counter them, which Davis has done for his entire career, similar to one of his mentors, Floyd Mayweather Jr.

In the second round, Garcia began to fire off on Davis and connected a series of punches. It seemed that he had Davis on the brink of defeat. Then, Garcia threw a right hand, which Davis promptly dodged and threw a counter left hook that hit Garcia flush in the face. This punch knocked Garcia down and changed the landscape of the fight. Garcia got back up, but for the next few rounds he was tentative and allowed Davis to dictate the fight. He knew that Davis had a counter for everything he had, so that kept him from firing off in the same manner until the seventh round.

That’s when Garcia began to be more aggressive again, firing off a flurry of punches. However, Davis planned for this and slipped under his right arm and hit Garcia with a staggering punch to the liver. Garcia did not fall immediately after this punch, but after he took a step back, he dropped to one knee and allowed the referee to count to 10, thus ending the fight. 

At first glance, the punch happened so fast it didn’t look like a fight-ending body shot, but upon further review, it was clear why the bout ended after this shot.

Both fighters are still at the top of their profession, but Davis proved to be the superior fighter when it was all said and done.