LAS VEGAS – Ryan Garcia believes he hurt Gervonta Davis with a right hand that landed not long before Davis dropped him in the second round Saturday night.
Though held by Davis, Garcia landed a short right hand on the inside as Davis complained to referee Thomas Taylor about Garcia hitting him behind his head. That shot made Davis hold him tighter as he pushed Garcia into the ropes.
Barely 10 seconds later, however, Davis drilled Garcia with a counter left hand that sent him to the canvas with 1:01 to go in the second round.
“I thought I had him pretty hurt, to be honest,” Garcia said during his post-fight press conference. “He was actually hurt and then that’s what I get. I ran into a big shot and, I mean, that’s what I get. I was impatient and then I ran into a [overhand] left, I believe. It didn’t really hurt me too bad, though. I got hurt more with Luke Campbell. But then that was that. Yeah, it was simple. I got impatient and I got caught.”
Garcia got up almost as soon as Taylor started to count and didn’t appear all that hurt. He had his moments in some of the subsequent rounds, but Davis delivered the knockout blow, a vicious left to Garcia’s body, which caused Garcia to take a knee.
Taylor counted Garcia out at 1:44 of the seventh round.
Baltimore’s Davis disputed that he was hurt in the second round, or at any other point in their 136-pound bout, when he spoke later at the press conference.
“I mean, it’s boxing,” Davis explained. “You know what I mean? He probably caught me with a good shot. It was no shots that caught me today and I felt like I was in trouble. You know what I mean? I just stayed calm. I felt like he was more anxious than me. You know what I mean? When you have somebody like that, you wanna stay calm at all costs because you don’t wanna make a bad decision. And that’s what he did. You know what I mean?
“He came and he was rushing, and then he ran into a shot. So, I knew off the get-go like I don’t wanna do that. You know what I mean? I wanna stay calm and stay collective and stay humble as I fight. And that’s what I was doing, picking my shots.”
The 28-year-old Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) has knocked out 19 of his last 20 opponents. He thought Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) would attempt to get up from that painful body blow, but that well-placed punch left Garcia unable to move temporarily.
“It took the air out of me,” Garcia said. “I just couldn’t get up, couldn’t recover and that was that – simple.”
By Keith Idec