Shakur Stevenson feels that Ryan Garcia fought at the “preschool” level, showing no ring IQ whatsoever in his seventh round knockout loss to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis last Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Stevenson says Ryan (23-1, 19 KOs) made so many mistakes that he couldn’t pin the blame on his coach Joe Goosen because they were taught to him throughout his years in boxing.
What Stevenson noticed about Ryan was that he standing tall for no reason, failing to use distance properly, and mindlessly looking to land his left hook all night instead of mixing up his shots.
Shakur notes that when Ryan got dropped early on, he threw three consecutive left hooks, and Tank took advantage of that by clipping him.
No one ever said that Ryan Garcia was an elite-level fighter going into the Tank Davis. He got the fight because he was popular with nine million Instagram followers, and he campaigned for it night & day.
If Ryan had to earn the Tank Davis fight by beating someone good like Devin Haney, Shakur, Frank Martin, or Vasily Lomachenko, he probably would have lost to all of them and been weeded out.
“Tank looked sharp, real sharp. He boxed real good. I think Ryan was like preschool. Ryan wasn’t on that top level,” said Shakur Stevenson to TMZ Sports. “When they talk about the four kings, they were all really special, and I don’t think Ryan was on that level. I don’t think Ryan was that good.
“He didn’t know his distance. He was looking for one left hook the entire fight. He threw a left hook three times in a row and got clipped. Everyone knows that when you fight Tank, you can’t do something three times in a row because his brain is like a computer. He picks up on it.
“There’s the elite level where you know what you’re doing and understand, and you got the ring IQ and ring smarts. Ryan just didn’t have none of that,” Shakur continued. “He went in there fighting with heart instead of using his brain.
“I think he was making a lot of mistakes. He was tall for no reason, and he doesn’t understand distance and things that could have helped him in the fight. I can’t blame his coach. It’s more like the training he had since he was a little kid.
“He doesn’t use his height and range. He likes to make things a way. That’s what got him beat up and picked apart,” said Shakur about Ryan.
