Gervonta 'Tank' Davis, the WBA lightweight champion, admits he was "nervous" ahead of 2023 win over Ryan Garcia

ByTNT Sports

Published 10/06/2024 at 15:34 GMT+1

Gervonta 'Tank' Davis put on one of the best displays of his career in 2023 when he came up against Ryan Garcia. It was Davis who emerged victorious, but he has now admitted he was "relieved" to get past an opponent who had worried him as a result of the sheer number of knockouts he had achieved. Davis fights Frank Martin next Saturday to defend his WBA lightweight belt.

Gervonta Davis a battu Ryan Garcia par KO

Image credit: Getty Images

WBA lightweight champion Gervonta 'Tank' Davis says he has to be "clued in" before he fights Frank Martin after feeling "nervous" in his last fight against Ryan Garcia.

Garcia met Davis at a catchweight in a huge fight back in 2023, and the heavy-handed Californian was, although an underdog, seen as a real threat.

Both Americans brought with them an undefeated record and it was Davis who held onto his as the more seasoned fighter. Under the tutelage of Floyd Mayweather Jr., he has collected several belts across two different weight classes.

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Davis has always been a fearsome fighter and rarely gives away any sense of weakness before his fights, and he went on to control the fight, sending Garcia to the canvas in the second round before stopping him with a brutal liver shot in the seventh.

Garcia recovered to put his career back on track with an upset win over WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney, though he is currently shrouded in controversy after returning an adverse result in a drugs test.

Davis has not fought since, though, and he told PBC that he was feeling uncharacteristically nervous given the challenge posed by Garcia last year.

He said: "I was nervous. I was nervous. His brother came in and told me I’m going to feel it, and I was like, ‘What?’ but I heard what he said, but I kept asking him. I was nervous.

"It was just me seeing him knock out so many people, like seeing him knock out people in the gym."

Discussing his path to victory, he said that Garcia had not been patient enough to use his powerful left hook to its full effect.

Davis explained: "He wasn’t patient. Maybe if he was patient he would have landed with some of those shots. He just started rushing, rushing, rushing.

"I caught him, he made a little face. I know you’re hit, and then he just dropped to his knee. [I was] relieved."

Looking ahead to his title defence against Martin on Saturday in Las Vegas, he told PBC in another interview that he was looking to change his mentality and that he would instead have to be "clued in."

The winner can expect to be given the chance to start unifying the division, with Haney’s departure breaking up all four belts.

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