Head hunting with Gervonta Davis
Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (28–0, 26 KOs) retains the WBA’s secondary lightweight title in the main event of the Showtime PPV.
“I wasn’t throwing a lot of shots (in the beginning of the fight) because I was trying to beat him mentally,” said Gervonta.
Ahead of his highly anticpiated fight with Ryan Garcia scheduled for April 15th, this morning’s fight (5am GMT) against Héctor Luis García could not have gone any better for Gervonta Davis. The bout took place in front of a capacity crowd of 19,731 at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC.
Tank did experience some trouble with the style of the experienced southpaw. The Dominican Republic native García fought well, despite being hit with some hard punches early on, especially in fourth round as Davis landed flush with some jabs.
“His southpaw style bothered me a little bit because I don’t fight a lot of southpaws, but it’s OK. It’s part of the game.”
The Altercation
Overall the fight appeared closer and more competitive than it actually was, with judges Steve Rodas (79–73), Wayne Smith (79–73) and Dave Moretti (78–74) all scoring Davis ahead of García by the end of the eighth round.
Midway through the eighth the referee had to pause the in-ring action because of a squabble in the stands near ringside, between Philly rapper Meek Mill and his Dreamchaser’s crew and active boxer Gary Russell Jr, which distracted Davis and García. The fight resumed for the last minute as the final punches were landed.
Davis tagged García with a straight left with less than 60 seconds on the clock in the eighth round and caught him again with a right uppercut with :18 left which caused García to wobble. García visibly hurt for the third or fourth time in the fight managed to survive the round. He seemed in a daze however when he went back to his corner, telling his trainer he could not see from his right eye and the fight was called off, giving him his first professional loss in 17 fights.
One Garcia down, one to go?
Denim Tears
Tank is such a draw now, he has casual fans, one’s that will overlook his ill advised ring walk with the now-notorious DC rapper Shy Glizzy who earlier this week was alleged to have drugged and raped multiple women over the years.
While Tank may have got the win via TKO it was hist outfit that stole the show!
He wore a black boxing robe and shorts adorned with diamanté crystals, designed by a collaboration with Tremaine Emory’s ‘Denim Tears’ (their classic all-over cotton wreath graphic) label and Swarovski; fresh from their “BUST DOWN TEARS” collection in November with Levi’s.
This PPV was Showtime’s first major event at the building now known as the Capital One Arena since Mike Tyson’s final fight in 2005 against Kevin McBride. Staying in the ring with Gervonta is an extreme sport and there continue to be parallels between him and a young Mike Tyson, Tank just seems to be more relaxed and flamboyant but just as deadly in the ring.
