Trainer Kenny Porter says Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis will get some “serious work” from his opponent Hector Luis Garcia on Saturday night. Porter predicts the southpaw Garcia (16-0, 10 KOs) will put himself in a position to land heavy shots on Gervonta (27-0, 25 KOs) and make this a difficult fight for him.
Thanks to the matchmaking done by his former promoters at Mayweather Promotions, Tank hasn’t fought any highly skilled guys during his career like Hector, and when he did fight opposition that had some talent, he had a size advantage over them.
Hector is a 2016 Olympian with over 300 amateur fights under his belt, and he’s also a world champion at super featherweight. If Tank is expecting an easy night’s work as he had in his bouts with Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero and Leo Santa Cruz, he could be mistaken.
Hector is likely going to use his boxing skills rather than going in fighting wildly like Rolly did last May. He’s worlds better than the novice Rolly, who was one of Mayweather Promotion’s stable guys with not much talent but could do well against smaller guys because he was basically a welterweight melting down to compete against lightweights.
“I think this guy is coming in here to give Tank some serious work,” said trainer Kenny Porter to Fight Hub TV about Hector Luis Garcia coming into Saturday’s fight looking to score an upset against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
“I think Garcia is the type of guy that will put himself in position to try and land big shots. But to put yourself in a position to land big shots, you’re also putting yourself in a position to get hit with some.
“So early on, he [Hector Garcia] might want to be careful to get some rounds with Tank. Tank is here to put on a show for a city. So I fully expect some fireworks.
“Whatever they’re doing to make sure he’s ready for Tank is to make sure Garcia is ready in all the things that he does well and maybe the things he doesn’t do well.
“You’ve got a world-class fighter in Tank Davis, who is on the pound-for-pound list, so you can’t have any mistakes. So we’re going to see what happens on Saturday night, but I think Tank can win this one by knockout if not a unanimous decision.
“That’ll give you confidence going up against bigger guys, stronger guys that can punch,” said Porter when told that Hector Garcia has been sparring with middleweight Carlos Adames.
“That can give you confidence in a camp and prepare you for bigger fighters. Some of the things they can’t prepare for are Tank’s quickness, his hand speed, and his explosive power. You can’t prepare for that; you can’t duplicate that.
“Because they can’t duplicate that with the headgear on and the smaller gloves, on a Saturday night, it’s a different fight.
“Tank is going to have to be on his A-game. We had this thing that happened last week that made me worried about whether I should even buy a flight to get over here.
“We got past that, so hopefully, he’s got his full focus on this guy [Hector Garcia] because he’s not an easy way. He’s not a walk in the park. I’ve never really studied Hector.
“I’ve only watched one fight, and that was where he beat the kid out of New York. Chris Colbert, that’s right. That’s the only fight I’ve seen of him, but I do know that any fighter that has distractions and loses his focus going into a fight, it can be a problem.
“I was concerned about whether they were still going to have the fight, but when they decided to go forward, I bought my flight. I’m here for all of it. I see him winning if not a stoppage by a unanimous decision,” said Porter about Tank Davis.