The war of words between Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Ryan Garcia further intensified today, following Davis’ suggestion that boxers were using mental health circumstances as a way to avoid undesirable commitments.
Triggered in this instance by Adrian Broner’s recent withdrawal from a fight against Oscar Figueroa, in which Broner stated that his mental health was not in the state that it needed to be for him to fight, WBA lightweight champion Davis tweeted to this 440,500 followers:
“Boxers gotta stop using “Mental health” shit to get out of stuff..yo ass just a bitch!”
24-year-old Garcia, who has long been an advocate for fighters openly discussing, protecting and taking their mental health seriously, and who has been commendably open with his own struggles, replied:
“Tank, we can go back and forth about what happens in the ring all day, but taking a shot at someone’s mental health is outta line.”
“I hope that you deleting your tweet is part of your journey to support your fellow boxers working on their mental health”.
Garcia further added, both in support of those experiencing mental health issues and to directly challenge Davis:
“Being honest about mental health is strength. Educate yourself and dont bring that hate to our beautiful sport. Now go tell your team to make our fight so you can see feel the power of the TRUTH”.
Undeterred, the 27-year-old WBA lightweight champion responded:
“We just built different, we come from two different places..and I want to show it..you kno how I’ll fight my mental health..by putting the pain on you!”
Follow the full twitter back and forth below:
We just built different, we come from two different places..and I want to show it..you kno how I’ll fight my mental health..by putting the pain on you! https://t.co/lQ4ZXbww8x
— Gervonta Davis (@Gervontaa) August 16, 2022
The two have 50 professional victories between them. They are both undefeated and have been circling each other for some time.
In a division weighty with talent, but which has often been criticised for not regularly matchmaking the biggest fights available, could this be the flashpoint that finally gets them both in to the ring?