Former four-weight world champion Mikey Garcia 40-1 (30) says he would be interested in face young gun Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis 25-0 (24).
Californian Garcia, 33, has fought his most recent two bouts at welterweight for mixed results. In March 2019 he was on the wrong end of a shutout against current WBC and IBF champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr 27-0 (21). He returned in February last year to score a competitive but decisive points victory over former world titleholder Jessie Vargas 29-3-2 (11).
Meanwhile, 26-year-old southpaw Davis from Baltimore, Maryland has fought five times since the beginning of 2019 across three separate weight classes.
In December 2019 he knocked out experienced veteran Yuriorkis Gamboa 30-4 (18) in the 12th round at lightweight, scored the knockout of the year with a sixth-round stoppage of Leo Santa Cruz 37-2-1 (19) at super featherweight last October and jumped up to junior welterweight last month to hand Mario ‘El Azteca’ Barrios 26-1 (17) his first defeat by 11th round knockout.
Garcia, who has won version of the world title from featherweight through to junior welterweight, has previously said he plan to continue campaigning at welterweight. A fight against Davis would have to take place no heavier than 140-pounds.
Still, it is an option that has stirred some interest in Garcia.
“I think so. He’s exciting, he’s strong and he’s got a lot of fans,” said Garcia to FightHype.
“He’s very popular. He made the right adjustments. Barrios was so much taller and had the longer reach.
“It took him a couple of rounds, four rounds maybe five, and he started closing the gap.
“Once he figured out the right timing and the right range, he turned it up and did some damage.”
Many fans and pundits question whether junior welterweight was a bridge too far for the five-foot-five-and-a-half Davis, who was dwarfed in the ring by the five-foot-ten Barrios but in the end it made no difference.
Davis was patient throughout the bout, picking his shots carefully and increasing the pressure as the rounds progressed. Barrios was dropped and cut below the left eye in the eighth and Davis went on with the job from there, knocking him out in the penultimate round while leading 97-91 and 96-92 twice on the scorecards.
There was a moment in the fight when Davis appeared momentarily stunned by a hard shot, but Garcia said Barrios did the right thing by not jumping on him.
“It happened so fast,” Garcia said.
“I don’t think he was hurt, but he was a little bit off-balance. That’s why Barrios didn’t go on the attack because Tank is dangerous.
“Barrios could have noticed that he wasn’t hurt and he was smart not to follow up. It’s a dangerous thing to do with Tank’s punching power.”
Garcia was in negotiations for a fight against Manny Pacquiao 62-7-2 (39) in the Middle East but when those negotiations fell apart the Filipino superstar quickly signed on to face Spence, leaving Garcia without a dance partner.
