It is often believed that the interest generated by a fight is given by the title that is put at stake.
YouTuber-turned-boxer
Jake Paul
seems to have thrown that idea overboard.
This Saturday, after years of waiting and
without a belt in dispute
, two men will summon
a crowd in Las Vegas
and millions through the screens:
Gervonta Davis
and
Ryan García
will star in one of the most attractive fights that boxing has to offer in these days.
The evening can be seen on ESPN and the Star+ platform from 9:00 p.m.
When the charismatic
Jimmy Lennon Jr. invites the contenders into the ring at T-Mobile Arena
, a journey that has often seemed doomed to failure
will have reached its final stop
.
The negotiations to reach the definitive agreement were extremely tough, mainly because the representatives of archrival corporations had to sit at the table: on the one hand,
Golden Boy
, García's promoter, and
DAZN
, the platform with which the Californian has an agreement;
on the other, Premier Boxing Champions, which handles Davis's interests, and
Showtime
, the network that broadcasts his fights.
"It was as if Coca-Cola had to work with Pepsi
," summarized Stephen Espinoza, president of
Showtime Sports
, after the contracts were signed and the last point of contention was overcome, linked to the rematch clause (to which only Davis will be able to use in case of defeat).
“Gervonta and Ryan wanted this fight and they didn't want anyone to leave until this was done.
That pressure really helped us solve all the problems,” explained Espinoza.
Gervonta Davis and Ryan García, two men who love each other very little.
Photo: Showtime Boxing.
Beyond minor details, such as the order in which they will go up to the roped-off (García will do it first), another aspect that generated intense debate before settling was the weight of the contenders: it was finally agreed that the border at the time of going up
to the scale on Friday was 136 pounds
(61,690 kilos), one more than the lightweight division limit.
But the contract
included a 10-pound rehydration clause
: on Saturday they must be weighed again and
neither of them can exceed 146 pounds
(66,225 kilos).
The expectation that the fight generates is not a consequence of the soap opera that preceded it, but of the protagonists that will star it: two young and extremely convening boxers who warmed up the previous one over low heat and that on Monday, during an Instagram live that was being followed by 188,000 people, they fought, insulted each other and agreed on an all or nothing bet: the winner would keep the million-dollar bags of both.
Gervonta Davis knocked out 26 of the 28 opponents she faced.
Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images/AFP.
A priori,
the favorite is the 28-year-old left-hander Davis
, who was super featherweight and super lightweight champion, and is currently entrenched in the lightweight division: he is the regular monarch of the World Boxing Association, which recognizes Devin Haney, owner, as super champion. also of the belts of the World Boxing Council, the International Boxing Federation and the World Boxing Organization (he will expose the four belts on May 20 against the Ukrainian Vasiliy Lomachenko).
Sponsored by Floyd Mayweather
, who was also his promoter from 2015 until last year,
Tank
(nickname he has carried since childhood due to the size of his head) built a superstar career thanks to a style that combines showmanship and power: his immaculate record of 28 victories includes 26 categorical definitions.
One of those who can prove that the Baltimore-born boxer hits as if he were carrying cobblestones in his gloves is Jesús Marcelo Andrés Cuellar, from Buenos Aires, who capitulated to him in the third round in April 2018 after visiting the canvas three times.
The electricity that runs through a ring every time Davis steps on it
has led to sold-out locations in his presentations in different parts of the United States, as happened at the Capital One Arena in Washington (with a capacity for 20,000 spectators) in January of this year, when he knocked out the Dominican Héctor Luis García.
The same will happen this Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena.
If Davis summons crowds in the stadiums made up mostly of traditional boxing audiences,
the strength of Ryan Garcia's massiveness lies in very young fans who base themselves on social networks
: his Instagram account has 9.5 million followers .
In any case, the 24-year-old Californian declares to whoever wants to listen that his popularity is not a vaporous phenomenon, but the consequence of his boxing qualities.
Ryan García with Óscar de la Hoya, his promoter.
King Ry
, who began boxing at age 7 and made his professional debut two months before turning 18 (thus renouncing to participate in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games), won his 23 bouts (19 before the limit) and was champion WBC lightweight interim.
However, his journey in high-performance sports has not been a bed of roses.
In April 2021, he announced that he would not fight on July 9 against the Dominican Javier Fortuna, as agreed.
"Right now, it's important to take charge of my health and well-being," he claimed then.
Details came almost a year later.
"Bottoms out.
I got into bad habits, I started drinking, I got drunk every day.
At some point, I wanted to end my life.
When I was in the depths of my depression, I didn't believe I would still be alive.
I came to think that it was better not to be here ”, he recounted in February of last year, when he was getting ready to return after also overcoming a fracture in his right wrist.
Since then, he has outpointed
Emmanuel Tagoe
of Ghana and knocked out Fortuna of the Dominican Republic in the sixth round in bouts in the super lightweight category.
Although he announced that his plan was to stay at 140 pounds, he will now have to reduce his tonnage to face the most demanding and profitable commitment of his career.
Garcia's chances will be based on his speed and his left hook, his best punch.
Although the Californian could score his greater height (1.78 meters against 1.66) and his bulk as an advantage, Davis is used to facing and beating men bigger than him.
In addition, it will be necessary to see how Ryan's jaw responds to the mandarriazos of his adversary.
As an inauspicious precedent (which
Tank
was in charge of confronting him in the presentation conferences of the evening), he was knocked down by the British Luke Campbell, a man without much punch, before defeating him in January 2021.
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