Ryan Garcia is getting ready for his 136-pound catchweight fight against Gervonta Davis by kickstarting some verbal sparring. 

While Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) is preparing for his Jan. 7 fight against Hector Luis Garcia, Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) has gone all-in on his preparation for Tank, recently foregoing a tentatively scheduled January tuneup tilt against Mercito Gesta. 

If you ask Garcia, his April slated Showtime pay-per-view date versus Davis will be a short-lived one. 

“Prediction for the fight – I say I'll beat him in about two rounds,” Garcia told The Joe Pomp Show. “Part of me knows that I am just better than him. What I've seen from him. What I know about myself. What I know they are underestimating, just by the way he speaks and just how he fights. But my main thing is that I don't think he's really ever understood adversity in a professional ring in his career. I think he's always had an understanding that nothing can go wrong because of the talent he's facing. I don't think he's felt any risk in the ring. When I'm in there, obviously he knows it's a different level of speed and power, and that I am not oblivious to the different shots he's trying to land, which are sometimes obvious that he throws. I think that he'll start facing the pressure that this is a lot harder than he may have thought. And I won't let off the gas when I feel that. But this is boxing. You have to make adjustments on the fly. This is only what I see from the outside. On the inside, it's all going to play out.”

Davis has predominantly relied on his brute strength to get past his opponents. 

His 92% career knockout ratio has resulted in fights lasting an average of just over four rounds. 

Davis has reeled off wins against Rolando Romero, Isaac Cruz, Mario Barrios, Leo Santa Cruz, and Yuriorkis Gamboa over his last five bouts dating back to 2020, but Garcia insists neither of the five possessed Davis the dimensions that he can. 

“I just really don't know if he's ever felt that feeling of 'how do I figure this out' because he is just way stronger than people and he's way faster than the opponents he's been fighting,” said Garcia. “Even when he's had problems, he's always known that he can just get up in them and start landing his hard shots because his opponents don't have the snap to make him cautious. And I think he's underestimating my intelligence a little bit. Because I've created my own type of style. My defensive moves are not flashy. My footwork is not flashy. Everything I do is not flashy, but it's very subtle. That's why I really don't get hit.” 

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com.