Boxing

Gervonta Davis v Ryan Garcia: Latest odds and pre-fight breakdown

1 year ago

| BY News Team

Gervonta Davis v Ryan Garcia odds, pre-fight preview, how to watch, betting promotions

Gervonta Davis v Ryan Garcia fight preview

Date: Saturday, 22nd April

Ring walks: Around 04:00 (UK time)

Where: Las Vegas

How to watch in the UK: DAZN

Records: Gervonta Davis (28-0, 26 KOs, WBA World Lightweight Champion), Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs)

Latest fight odds for Gervonta Davis v Ryan Garcia

How Gervonta Davis can win the fight?

Counter-punch with an eye on the knockout.

In the eyes of many casual fight fans, Gervonta Davis is a seek-and-destroy merchant, a mini-Mike Tyson, who runs over his opponents with pressure and explosive punching power.

But that sells the current WBA champ short.

Closer study shows Davis to be a multi-faceted, cerebral boxer-puncher who can come and get you, but is most effective when laying traps and drawing mistakes, which he punishes with creative counters.

In his fight with Rolando Romero last May, Davis baited Romero towards the ropes with subtle footwork, and then ended the fight with a left-hand counter from the southpaw stance.

Or how about his career-best win over former three-weight world champion Leo Santa Cruz, where Davis entered the pocket, waited for his opponent to unload a combination, then responded with an upper-cut for a spectacular one-punch KO?

Ahead of this fight, Davis and his veteran trainer, Calvin Ford, will have studied Ryan Garcia and identified defensive vulnerabilities that they can exploit to get the knockout.

The younger less-experienced Garcia has shown carelessness in the past. Against the British Olympian Luke Campbell – a fighter not known for TNT punching – Garcia was heavily knocked down and buzzed after spending too long in punching range.

The challenger showed character to come back to win that fight, ending things with a highlight-reel left-hook to the body. But he can’t afford any such lapse in concentration against a puncher and finisher of Davis’s quality.

Gervonta Davis, key stats:

Beat Yuriorkis Gamboa to win the WBA world lightweight title in 2019
A two-weight world champion, having previously won the IBF world super featherweight title
Boasts a fearsome 93% KO ratio
Has been taken the distance just once since 2014
Has never been down in his pro career

Latest odds:

Latest fight odds for Gervonta Davis v Ryan Garcia

How Ryan Garcia can win the fight?

Keep it at range, and stay switched on for every second of every round.

At 5’ 10’’, Ryan Garcia is an unusually tall lightweight, who’ll likely move up as far as 147 before he hangs up his gloves.

Garcia will enjoy a significant reach advantage over the 5’ 5’’, Gervonta Davis, and he’ll hope to use that to control the fight from the outside with the jab, which he’ll work off to set up his money punch, the left-hook.

Garcia uncorked that picturebook hook against Campbell for one of the best knockouts of 2021.

And, in his second fight of 2022, a blurring combination of punches capped with a sweet left hook around the guard left the experienced Javier Fortuna staring sadly at the canvas, unable or unwilling to contine.

With such a dangerous weapon in his arsenal, a Garcia KO win is possible at any time in the fight.

But perhaps his most likely route to victory is to pile up the points by working that long jab and by making Davis pay every time ‘Tank’ attempts to close the distance.

If Garcia succeeds, we could be looking at boxing’s next crossover superstar.

Ryan Garcia, key stats:

This is his first shot at a world title
Went 12 rounds for the first time in April 2022, winning by UD against Emmanuel Tagoe
Three of his last five stoppage wins have come in the first two rounds
A 15-time national amateur champion with an outstanding amateur record of 215-15

Latest odds:

Latest fight odds for Gervonta Davis v Ryan Garcia

Our verdict: How we think Gervonta Davis v Ryan Garcia will play out

If Davis can close the range without taking too much damage, he should win the fight, perhaps by stoppage in the mid-to-late rounds.

‘Tank’ has spent his career making taller opponents give up their height, and his outstanding footwork can take him inside where he can do the most damage.

Ultimately, Davis doesn’t have to be perfect to win this fight, but Garcia will need to be flawless.

That could be too big an ask against an outstanding champion who seems poised to challenge Devin Haney for supremacy in boxing’s most stacked division.

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