LAS VEGAS – Gervonta Davis’ co-trainers couldn’t believe Oscar De La Hoya had the audacity to question their confidence in Davis during their final press conference Thursday.

Calvin Ford and Kenny Ellis are certain that it’s De La Hoya, whose company promotes Garcia, and the rest of Garcia’s team who don’t believe in their fighter entering his 12-round, 136-pound showdown with Davis on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. Ford and Ellis contended during a joint interview following the press conference at MGM Grand’s KA Theatre that Garcia and his team pushed so hard to make this high-profile fight because they feel like it’s “a lottery ticket,” not because they’re confident that he’ll upset their left-handed knockout artist from Baltimore.

“They’re cashing him out,” Ellis said. “After this fight, he’s going off into acting somewhere.”

The reason, according to Ellis, that the 24-year-old Garcia didn’t take the tune-up fight Golden Boy Promotions tentatively had scheduled for him January 28 is because Garcia was worried he would lose and cost himself this enormous payday.

“It’s like a lottery ticket. ‘If we win, we win. If we lose, we lose and go off into the sunset,’ ” Ford said. “I’m saying that for them. That’s what I’m saying. It’s like a lottery ticket. ‘We got this lottery ticket here. We got Gervonta Tank Davis. If we win, ahhh! We hit the lottery. If we lose, we still won.’ That’s why we wanted to put everything up [by betting their purses]. You know what I’m saying? So, the person can what? Feel it. If we win, then we go home. And then, when you lose, you done lost and your pockets are empty. If you say you really believe in your team, put it up! Put it up!”

Davis and Garcia acknowledged that they won’t actually bet their entire purses on the outcome of their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event. They verbally agreed to the bet during an Instagram Live session with influencer Kai Cenat on Monday, but their representatives predictably didn’t follow through by drawing up paperwork to make their wager binding.

Ford feels that was a wise decision for Garcia because Davis’ rival doesn’t have the makeup to beat one of boxing’s most devastating punchers.

“He really wanna act,” Ford said. “That’s what he wanna do. You can’t act with this. It’s different levels to this, different levels. … It’s like a sacrificial lamb that they puttin’ up right there. He’s acting.”

Handicappers have installed Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) as more than a 2-1 favorite to defeat Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs), of Victorville, California. Their high-profile fight will headline a four-fight pay-per-view show scheduled to start at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT ($84.99).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.