Another show has come and gone and the machine moves on to the next.

So it was and so it will be…but this time we got a pretty good show for the trouble. 

Boxing has been on a roll in 2023 and its first mega-event held up its end of the bargain. We got all the bells and whistles in the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia showdown. The preview shows were well produced; Sports Center gave us a split screen of the combatants; the fight ended conclusively; and, even in the aftermath, allegations of banned promoters and death threats against Oscar De La Hoya were left to stoke the embers.

The conclusive ending was the most important part.

The question coming into the weekend was whether Ryan Garcia was really up for the moment. Garcia certainly tried but it didn’t take long for the reality of the fight to be clear. Gervonta Davis wasn’t just older, more mature, and more experienced than Garcia.

Davis was better.

Considerably better.

It wasn’t the sort of better where there was a lot of room to complain about rehydration clauses. 

Ryan Garcia had a solid first round, working behind his jab while Davis got a look at him. Garcia then turned it up in the second, throwing hard, working Davis in the clinches, and looking to make a statement. The problem for Garcia is that his offense was predictable, timable, and Davis lowered the boom. 

Garcia got up from that second round knockdown and recovered quickly, at least physically. With the benefit of hindsight, it didn’t matter. Davis had him in checkmate already. For the next three rounds, Garcia struggled to figure out how to attack Davis. Neither man was throwing or landing much but it was Davis who was keeping the fight at the measured pace he prefers. 

In round six, there were signs of life from Garcia. The round was close, but the right hands of Garcia caught the eye. Garcia’s hand speed and explosiveness were still there, presenting the illusion the fight was still up for grabs.

Then came round seven. 

Building on his perceived success in the sixth, Garcia continued to look to fight his way back into the contest. Davis landed a nasty body shot with Garcia appearing for a moment to have taken it fine before the delayed reaction impact settled in. 

Davis was the favorite heading into the first superfight of 2023. He showed why as Garcia took the count to end their anticipated battle. 

Futures: Ryan Garcia, for lack of a better way to put it, tried to skip the line last Saturday. With just a few tough fights under his belt, the Garcia gamble was that his natural talent and foundation would be enough to jump from rising contender to superstar in one night. 

Instead, we saw a tale told often in boxing: sometimes, a fighter’s education doesn’t start until they see a more seasoned pro who shows them where they are in the moment. The gap between Davis and Garcia was less physical than it was academic. 

Davis’s boxing IQ was just too high for Garcia. The defeated man still has a following and plenty of talent. He also has defensive lapses and liabilities that need work. Tank gave him the tape to prove it. Garcia will have the hard work of implementing the lessons taught as his career progresses.

For Davis, Saturday was further affirmation that he has fully arrived. For years, the argument was about his resume. The argument is outdated. Garcia was Davis’s fifth win in six starts against a fighter rated in the top ten by TBRB and/or Ring Magazine in their weight class. Those five wins have come against fighters rated in four weight classes: featherweight (Leo Santa Cruz), Jr. lightweight (Hector Garcia), lightweight (Isaac Cruz, Garcia), and Jr. welterweight (Mario Barrios). 

Reaching back three years, it’s the most ranked wins of any fighter in the sport since April 2020. There are a handful of fighters who can argue they’ve faced tougher foes during the same time span, but Davis’s run is among the best in the sport right now. The one thing missing is found where all eyes turn next at lightweight.

A lot of business was done between competing factions to make Davis-Garcia. Davis is the undisputed top draw in his weight class. Davis is not the undisputed lightweight champion of the world. 

That honor goes to Devin Haney, who defends against former unified titlist Vasyl Lomachenko in May. The biggest fight that can be made at lightweight is Davis challenging the Haney-Lomachenko winner. In a perfect world, it would be the no problem destination for the division in the fall. 

This isn’t a perfect world and Davis-Cruz II or Davis-Frank Martin or…or, something else may be most likely in the fall. Davis’s legal issues outside the ring will influence the timeline of future fights as well.

But after Saturday, it’s time to find out if the box office king can stamp himself the in-ring king as well. The fun is just starting at lightweight.               

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com