Gervonta Davis might have had a problem on his hands if he hadn’t knocked out Ryan Garcia on Saturday night, according to the official scorecards.
Despite knocking Garcia down in the second round, the three ringside judges disagreed with most of those scoring live. By rights, Davis should have had a 10-8 round after putting Garcia on the canvas in a close session.
However, on the face of it, two of the three officials had Garcia winning the round handily. Therefore, they scored 10-9 in favor of Davis, which they are entitled to do, even if they were probably wrong on that occasion.
Dave Moretti is the one with something to answer for, as he carded 10-10 even. How on earth he managed that is anyone’s guess.
Gervonta Davis vs Ryan Garcia scorecards
With the knockdown, Davis gets an automatic ten points. The rules don’t state that a fighter dropped can still score ten points having had a visit to the floor.
A knockdown makes a score 10–8 unless the other fighter has dominated clearly. In that case, it would still be 10-9 in favor of the fighter who scored the knockdown.
The only way those two outcomes alter is if there is a point deduction or the fighter who got knocked down gets a knockdown themselves. That is quite clear.
Garcia hit the floor, so there cannot be any way he gets an equal share of round two. The only way Tank loses his ten is if he also goes down.
Judges cannot disregard an official knockdown. In this case, Moretti clearly did.
In the end, Davis got the job done in seven. It might have been a hairy moment for the sport again if he hadn’t ended it before twelve.
The body shots that eventually ended the bout were an essential tool for Davis. CompuBox said he landed eighteen punches to the body throughout the fight.
Both fighters landed an impressive percentage of power punches, with Davis connecting on 48% and Garcia at 42%.
Dave Moretti
At the time of the stoppage, Davis led on all three cards, with tallies of 59-55, 59-56, and 58-56. WBN had it the same as Showtime’s unofficial scorer Steve Farhood at 58-55.
It wasn’t a difficult fight to score. Garcia won the first. Davis won the second 10-8 [10-9 at a significant push]. “Tank” won the next three before Garcia returned in the sixth.
The end came in the seventh, leaving the judges’ verdict obsolete. That was probably for the best.
Compubox gave its summary in a statement to World Boxing News.
Usually, landing 43% of your power punches, as Ryan Garcia did, equates to success. However, that wasn’t enough against Gervonta Davis, who landed 48% of his power punches.
Davis’ first landed power punch sent Garcia to the canvas in round two. Garcia landed 24% of his total punches, well below his career 31% connect rate.
Davis landed 34% of his punches, which aligns with his career’s 35.1% connect rate. After a tense six rounds, one body punch from Davis put Garcia down and rendered him unable to continue in the seventh round.
Gervonta Davis declared himself the new face of the sport in the aftermath. It’s hard to argue with that – if only Dave Moretti’s level second round.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of experienced boxing writer Phil Jay. Twitter @PhilJWBN. Follow WBN: Facebook, Insta, Twitter.
