Ryan Garcia was humbled by his first loss on Saturday night as Gervonta Davis scored a spectacular body-shot stoppage in Las Vegas.
However, Garcia didn’t shy away from the cameras and honestly assessed his seventh-round defeat.
Davis landed a superbly-placed left hand on Garcia’s ribcage. As referee Thomas Taylor conducted his count, Garcia attempted to rise to his feet but was in visible pain.
He was counted out at 1:44 in the round.
Ryan Garcia reacts to the body shot KO
“He just caught me with a good shot. I don’t want to make any excuses here,” said Garcia.
“He caught me with a good shot. I couldn’t recover, and that’s it. He caught me with a good body shot, snuck under me, and caught me good.
“I couldn’t breathe. I was going to get back up, but I couldn’t get up.”
Asked how his ribs were after the shot, Garcia replied: “I’m good. ‘Tank’ is a great fighter. I take my hat off to him.
“I know we talked a lot of trash leading into the fight, but he knows what it is. It’s all love at the end of the day.
“I was honored to be in the ring with a great fighter. I respect him a lot. You know how the business goes. But I want to say to ‘Tank,’ you’re a good man.”
Following a cautious first round, it was Garcia who pushed the envelope first, blitzing Davis early in round two as he sought to land his signature power left hook.
However, Davis quickly turned the tide, ducking under a left hook and returning fire with a powerful left hook that put Garcia down.
Although Garcia rose to his feet, he rarely was as aggressive following the first knockdown.
Too much respect
“I should have pressured him a little harder near the ropes,” added Garcia. “I was giving him a little bit too much respect.
“But I think that was my downfall. I think I gave him too much respect in the ring.”
The win marked four consecutive knockouts for Davis. He still holds the ‘regular’ WBA lightweight title in addition to past conquests at super featherweight and super lightweight.
Not all of his title wins were bonafide, though. Despite this, Davis enters the WBN Pound for Pound Top Ten as Garcia returns to the drawing board.
