Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia actually agree that the terms of the contract sway in Davis’ favour, and certain terms should have lead the latter to decline the fight.
The pair will face off on April 22 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas – a fight that defies the frustrating way of boxing to often fail to make the best fights at the right time.
Both in their prime and with only a handful of fights not going the distance, the event has all of the ingredients to make it the biggest spectacle in the sport this year.
Despite the good news at the end of the negotiations, there were certainly some obstacles to overcome.
Davis had said at the post-press conference of his last fight – a stoppage victory over Hector Luis Garcia – that ‘King Ryan’ was a clown for agreeing to all of the terms.
“Ryan is a baby clown. He shouldn’t be talking, he should be working. He agreed to everything. We just went like this [throwing hands out] and he just agreed to everything.”
And Garcia agrees – although he points out that he did so not out of naivety, but for the good of the sport. He said at the kick-off press conference for his fight with ‘Tank’ that his decision was for the fans.
“He likes to fight people with no power so he’s tying to weight drain me … There’s a rehydration clause, I can’t gain more than ten pounds. There’s a lot of stipulations in there that show what kind of character he has.
“I was tired of the misconception about myself. And I thought to myself, you know what, I’m gonna do whatever I have to do to make this fight happen.
I picked the fans and I picking boxing in itself before myself, because a lot of the time during this negotiation I probably should’ve said no.”
How the catchweight of 136lb affects Garcia won’t be clear until the weigh-in and fight night, but there’s no question he’s more suited to a 140 limit.