Andy Ruiz was disappointed in the performance that Ryan Garcia put up against Gervonta Davis.
The former heavyweight champion from Imperial, California, said in a recent interview that he thinks Garcia—his fellow American of Mexican descent and native of The Golden State—committed the greatest sin for a prizefighter: giving up.
Garcia, 24, and Davis, 28, met in the ring last Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for their highly anticipated 12-round, 136-pound catchweight bout that ended with Garcia failing to get up from a body shot in the seventh round.
Garcia, who went down from a counter left hand in the second round, drew widespread accusations online from fans and fighters suggesting he “quit.”
Count Ruiz, who was rooting for Garcia, as one of them. Indeed, Ruiz went so far as to say that Garcia should have “risked his life more" against Davis.
“Man, Gervonta did what he had to do,” Ruiz told FightHype.com. “He won the fight, but I was going for Ryan, but he gave up, man. I felt like he gave up. I feel like he should have did what he has to do to win the fight. When we get [knocked] down, we got to get back up.
“We got to ask God for that victory. When we get knocked down, we got to ask for God for that victory, but I felt like that’s what he should have done. I still feel that Ryan should have done more, man. He should have risked his life more. He should have risked his life more.”
Baltimore’s Davis was ahead on all three scorecards (58-56, 59-56, 59-55) at the time of the stoppage.
Davis remains undefeated at 29 wins with 27 knockouts. Garcia suffers his first loss of his career, dropping to 23 wins, 1 loss, against 19 knockouts.