Ryan Garcia says he plans to knock out Gervonta Davis when the two men meet at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on April 22 in a highly anticipated clash of unbeaten lightweights.
“I’m going to take him out. He’s done. It’s nap time for Gervonta,” the 24-year-old Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) said at a media workout in Los Angeles, per a press release from Showtime, which will be showing the fight on pay-per-view in the United States.
“This is a fight to show everybody that I’m great,” he continued. “I’m not daring to be great. I know I’m great. I know when I step in the ring, he’s going to feel something he’s never felt before. I’m going to conquer him. Everything he tries to do I’ll have an answer for him. Gervonta Davis is not going to beat me. I promise you.
Garcia’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya is no stranger to headlining major pay-per-view cards in Las Vegas, and the Hall-of-Famer said that he has been offering his protégé advice on handling the biggest of big boxing stages.
“I’ve given little tips to Ryan here and there on how to deal with an event of this magnitude,” he said. “Being involved in events like these inside the ring myself, I can share with Ryan what he’s going to feel come fight week. What he’s going to feel after he weighs in. What he’s going to feel as he’s walking down the tunnel into the ring. It’s no secret that I’ve been there. He’s always open to listening and taking the advice. It can only help. Having a promoter like myself and Bernard Hopkins, another legendary fighter, is obviously a plus for any fighter.”
The clash with Davis will be Garcia’s third with another, newly minted, Hall of Famer in his corner. Joe Goossen has himself frequently been in the eye of the big fight storm, perhaps most notably when he urged Diego Corrales to a spectacular come-from-behind knockout win over Jose Luis Castillo at the Mandalay Bay in 2005. But he says that Garcia is already one of his favorite students.
“Ryan may have carved out one of the top spots of fighters I’ve trained in my career,” he said. “He’s a very unique individual to start with. Like I always say, there’s a certain amount of boxes you check for each fighter. They are all checked for him – from the bottom to the top. He’s got the speed, he’s got the power, he’s got the reach, he’s got the height. What a work ethic. He’s so self-driven and self-motivated. You wonder, ‘Could this really be true?’
“He looks like a star. He carries himself like a star. I just think Ryan is one of the top three of my all-time favorite fighters ever. But I think after this fight on the 22nd he’ll occupy the No. 1 spot.”
Garcia returns the love in spades.
“Having a guy [like Goossen] with so much experience and understanding of the game, I just love being around him. He’s a very intelligent man. I love being around a person that you can just talk to about life in different ways and come to better understandings of both life and boxing. It’s great to have a person like that around me.”
When it comes to Davis, however, he is understandably less complimentary, before returning to his favorite theme.
“Gervonta says he’s going to take me into deep waters. Guess what, I know how to swim. It’s nothing special. He needs to come up with something better than that. Think a little harder.
“I hope Gervonta has been getting good sleep. If not, he’ll get some good sleep April 22
