Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia were more than 1,800 miles apart Thursday, busy promoting fights they’re heavily favored to win.
Garcia, eager to fight after a 15-month absence, predicted he’ll knock out Emmanuel Tagoe in a main event DAZN will stream Saturday night from Alamodome in San Antonio. Davis, again agitated by a talkative rival, promised to knock out Rolando Romero in their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event May 28 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
If we get the results conventional wisdom would suggest, there’s no reason Saturday night shouldn’t mark the first significant step toward Davis-Garcia happening next.
Victories by Davis (26-0, 24 KOs) and Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) would leave them available on comparable schedules, as their fights will take place just seven weeks apart. The fact that they fight on a competing premium cable network and streaming service – Davis on Showtime or Showtime Pay-Per-View for his past 10 fights and Garcia on DAZN for his past six appearances – shouldn’t be an obstacle, either.
Devin Haney has proven to his contemporaries recently that an ambitious boxer will make whichever sacrifices necessary if he genuinely want a fight to happen. If the unbeaten WBC world lightweight champion can agree to fight George Kambosos Jr. potentially twice in Kambosos’ home country of Australia, Davis and Garcia should strive to make the concessions required to start strengthening their legacies before it’s too late.
If Teofimo Lopez’s loss to Kambosos reminded them of anything, it should’ve been that planning a few fights ahead is risky business when there are always ambitious underdogs waiting to make their names off yours. Romero can punch and Tagoe gives Kambosos hell in sparring sometimes, but the quality of Davis and Garcia should enable them to remain unbeaten in their upcoming fights.
The usual hurdles of the boxing business might not prevent Davis-Garcia from happening, either.
Davis has made it perfectly clear in not-so-subtle Tweets recently that he intends to disassociate himself from Mayweather Promotions – maybe even Al Haymon and Showtime – after he fights Romero. This is Davis’ last fight on his contract with Mayweather.
If he parts ways with the promoter that has helped build him into a big gate attraction and a somewhat successful pay-per-view “A” side, Davis could stay aligned with Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions and Showtime. Regardless, promoters, networks and streaming services shouldn’t prohibit Davis-Garcia from happening later this year if they record respective wins against Romero (14-0, 12 KOs) and Tagoe (32-1, 15 KOs), and truly want the fight.
Depending on the outcome of Kambosos-Haney on June 5 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Davis and Garcia might be left only to face each other if they want a big lightweight fight in the second half of 2022.
If the slightly favored Haney wins and remains at lightweight, he’ll have to box Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) in an immediate rematch in Australia. If Kambosos wins, he’ll likely try to fight Vasiliy Lomachenko again.
Kambosos-Lomachenko would require an end to Ukraine’s war with Russia. Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) withdrew from his June 5 fight against Kambosos because of his commitment to Ukraine’s military efforts.
Should Kambosos beat Haney and Lomachenko remain unavailable, Davis and Garcia could become legitimate options for the Syndey native’s following fight.
Those are a lot of ifs, which is why it is more likely Davis-Garcia will be the meaningful fight for them should they remain unbeaten by the time May 29 rolls around.
There is already evidence that Davis, 27, and Garcia, 23, both want the fight.
Negotiators for Mayweather Promotions and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions came closer than most realize early in 2021 to having made Davis-Garcia a reality last spring.
Productive discussions ceased when Garcia’s handlers became preoccupied with the possibility of Garcia facing Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao. While intriguing for obvious reasons to Garcia, financing for the Pacquiao fight never materialized.
By the time it became clear Pacquiao wasn’t a legitimate option for Garcia, Davis had already committed to moving up to the 140-pound division to box WBA secondary champion Mario Barrios. Baltimore’s Davis stopped Barrios in the 11th round of their June 26 bout at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
Garcia agreed to face Javier Fortuna last July 9 at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles. The Victorville, California, native withdrew from that WBC interim title fight soon after it was made to address his mental health.
By beating Tagoe impressively, the polarizing, popular knockout artist can regenerate the buzz he established early in 2021 with his seventh-round stoppage of 2012 Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell. If Davis does his part, too, there don’t appear to be any legitimate obstacles that should prevent Davis and Garcia from fighting next.
That’s if, like Haney, they genuinely want the type of higher-profile fights that they’ve always discussed.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
