Looking to stamp his 160-pound contender status after a huge 2023 campaign, the 20-year-old Elijah Garcia will return for a 10-round showdown against tough middleweight contender Kyrone “Shut It Down” Davis, who can make his own name at middleweight with a signature victory on March 30.
Fighting out of Phoenix, Arizona, Garcia (16-0, 13 KOs) earned three impressive victories in 2023, kicking off his year last March with a knockout of the previously unbeaten Amilcar Vidal. He followed that up with a pair of performances on the undercards of two of the biggest events of the year, first defeating Kevin Salgado on the Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia pay-per-view in April before knocking out Armando Resendiz on the Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo pay-per-view in September. The precocious Garcia has moved fast since turning pro in 2020 and has knocked out seven of his last nine opponents.
“I’m excited to be back in the ring, especially on this first event with PBC and Prime Video,” said Garcia. “Fighting on these major events is an incredible blessing and I plan on delivering another great performance. Kyrone Davis has been in the ring with some very good fighters, and it will be a challenging fight, but my plan is to get the win by any means necessary. The fans are going to see an incredible night of boxing on March 30 and everyone should be tuning in.”
The 29-year-old Davis (18-3-1, 6 KOs) picked up two victories in 2023, dominating Cristian Fabian Rios in January before scoring a unanimous decision over Cruse Stewart in December. Those victories came after a run that saw Davis battle two-time champion Anthony Dirrell to a draw in February 2021, before stepping in as a late replacement two fights later to drop a hard-fought contest against super middleweight superstar David Benavidez. An amateur standout representing Wilmington, Delaware, Davis trains in Philadelphia under the tutelage of top trainer Stephen “Breadman” Edwards.
“Elijah Garcia is a very good fighter who’s young and hungry and he looks the part, but most importantly he’s been moved right,” said Davis. “Sometimes you can look better than you really are if you’re being moved right. I got asked about this fight last year and of course I said yes. Then everything went silent. Now, I face Cruse Stewart and he goes the distance with me and Elijah stopped him, so now he fights me. I’m not going to say too much, but I’m glad they took the fight. We’ll see if Garcia is really the future come March 30.”
