Former two division world champion Andre Ward gave his take on the 2023 mega-bout between lightweight rivals Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia.
Davis will return to the ring on January 7, when he faces unbeaten super featherweight world champion Hector Luis Garcia in the main event of a Showtime pay-per-view card.
Garcia was also scheduled to return next month, in a stay-busy fight against Mercito Gesta, but Garcia opted against the upcoming return and now intends to sit on the sidelines until the Davis fight.
Should Davis win next month, the fight with Garcia is likely to land on a date in April.
One of the issues for Garcia are his spells of inactivity. He only fought once in 2020 and 2021 - and Davis has also contended with a higher level of competition.
If the fight moves forward in April, Garcia will be taking part in his first fight since July of 2022, when he stopped former champion Javier Fortuna in six rounds.
Davis has been out of the ring since his knockout of Rolando Romero in May, which is exactly what prompted him to take another fight to keep himself sharp.
When evaluating the different factors in the Davis-Garcia showdown, Ward is giving the edge to Davis.
“You got to favor Tank in that. It’s not a gimme fight for either guy, but you got to favor Tank based on the experience and the better opposition and the punching power of Tank and his boxing ability," Ward told Fighthype.com.
“Ryan is explosive, extremely fast, and Tank is going to have to contend with that. That’s going to give Tank trouble early until he catches up. The question for Ryan Garcia is can he take a punch?"