Ryan ‘Kingry’ Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) pulled a no mas, quitting on one knee in the seventh round on Saturday night after WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) hit him in the solar plexus with a left hand in their bout at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Bleeding from the nose, Ryan didn’t look that hurt when he was on one knee after the knockdown in the seventh. He just didn’t want to get up. Some would say that it’s shameful for Ryan to surrender on his knees, but what do you expect? He’d never proven himself against the killers at 135, and he basically campaigned like a politician to get the fight with Tank without earning it.
You saw Ryan steal a glance across the ring at Gervonta, and that might have been enough for him to decide to stay down for the count.
If Ryan had gotten back to his feet, Tank predictable would have been all over him, tagging him at will with power shots, and the popular Instagram/boxer hybrid likely made the calculated decision to surrender on his knee rather than go out on his shield like a warrior.
You can’t fault Ryan for saving his own skin. It takes courage to fight to the bitter end, and it’s a rare fighter that possesses the intentional fortitude to go to that length to try and win.
At the time of the stoppage, Gervonta was ahead on all three of the judge scorecards by the following scores: 58-56, 59-56, and 59-55.
Gervonta played possum in round one, letting Kingry get confident by not throwing anything back. However, in round two, Gervonta came to life, landing a left hand counter that shook Ryan to his boots, putting him on the canvas.
“Honestly, I’m not surprised. The question when it got hot for Ryan, would he dig deep or give in? He gave in,” said Danny Garcia to Fight Hub TV.
“I knew from the very first round, he [Ryan] was following him around. I said, ‘You can’t follow Tank around.’ You got to see head movement; use your feet. He was walking right into it. He wasn’t even using his jab. That was like.
“I told people this; Tank is a strong fighter. He doesn’t throw a lot of punches, but he’s the type of fighter that when you hit him, you burn yourself down. He’s mentally strong, so you got to be there with him.
“If you’re not mentally strong, that’s what’s going to happen. He’s going to break you down. I just felt that he [Ryan] was fighting the wrong fight. He was following him around from round one, he wasn’t using his jab and his defense wasn’t there,” said Danny Garcia.
