Gervonta Davis won Saturday night’s boxing super-fight in Las Vegas against Ryan Garcia with a brutal stoppage in the seventh round.
Gervonta Davis delivered a stunning body shot in the seventh round, causing Ryan Garcia to stumble back and then go to a knee, ending one of boxing’s most-anticipated matches in recent history with a knockout at 1:44 in a lightweight bout on Saturday night.
Gervonta Davis improved to 29-0, with all but two of his victories by knockdown. It was the first defeat for Garcia, who won 19 of his first 23 fights by KO.
Davis also sent Garcia to the mat with a roundhouse left in the second round and spent most of the rest of the fight working the body. The strategy worked for Davis, a 28-year-old from Baltimore who put himself in a position to succeed Canelo Alvarez as the face of the sport.
Garcia, a 24-year-old who lives in Los Angeles, did manage to land two sharp rights to Davis’ face in the sixth round. But then Tank Davis came back in the seventh with a left that, at first, didn’t appear to hurt Garcia much as he moved back. But then he went to a knee that prompted referee Thomas Taylor to call the bout.
This fight between lightweight challengers had the feel of a big-time event, attracting celebrities such as Julius Erving, Damian Lillard and Mark Walhberg, as well as former champs Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard and Manny Pacquiao.
Davis’ victory could set up a showdown with undefeated Devin Haney, who owns all four major championship belts in the division. Haney faces former champ Vasiliy Lomachenko in May, also in Las Vegas.