Why this fight has so much hype around it
Contrasting personalities:-
While Ryan Garcia is a bigger star on Social Media with none of his contemporaries coming even close. More popular active boxing stars ahead of him would be Canelo and Joshua which goes to show the popularity of Ryan at such an early age. His fans would mostly be categorised as mostly casual boxing fans or fans who barely watch boxing. This is an interesting fanbase because Ryan brings a lot of attention to the sport by bringing those fans who are not ardent boxing fans who would just be interested in his fights.
Tank Davis on the other hand would be classified as less of a popular social media star, but in the Boxing Circuit, everyone knows who Tank is and what he can do. He has the respect of everyone who understands boxing in terms of skills. He has that dog in him with nicknames like Mini Mike Tyson goes to show how highly he is rated around the boxing circuit. Even though he might not be on the p4p list as high as we all want him to be, he has the potential to be p4p best. A fan favourite when it comes to his fighting style which is the reason for his PPV attractions plus his gate numbers. He has the pull to bring in major celebrities for the fight.
Battle of Supremacy:- There is a clear dislike between 2 fighters which is evident on social media but I don’t think there is personal hate between each other. The dislike is purely down to the fact that their paths are crossing and both of them are extremely confident in their skills with both believing they will be victorious.
Why Ryan has more questions to answer than Tank
Well, Ryan is younger and less experienced out of the two. I ran a Twitter poll on my account where 80% of the fans picked Tank to win. I have also seen other polls which tend to suggest the same outcome followed by multiple predictions from pundits and fans around the world suggesting the same and understandably so. Tank is more experienced, has been in the game longer, and has that dynamite of a left hand which could put anyone to sleep. So there is a consensus that not only Tank wins but he wins spectacularly by knocking out Ryan.
More pressure on Ryan:- Ryan’s got a lot more to prove. He has to fight smart. He’s jumping straight in with Tank after his last win which was almost 9 months ago by the time he steps in the ring again which could prove to be a mistake without any tune-ups in between. He cannot let his ego dictate the fight which could be a bad decision against a deadly puncher like Tank. Ryan needs to use his reach advantage to its maximum, fight on the outside and just outbox him. Use hand speed, throw feints with left hooks (a move which I have seen Canelo use beautifully and I think he learnt from Canelo) either to body or chin and hurt Tank to a point where Tank is hesitant to throw. Ryan needs to drag this fight into 2nd half which from Ryan’s perspective should be the most important task rather than trying to finish him early. 2nd half of the fight is where Ryan can take more chances and maybe make it a shootout if he is losing the fight, if not keep boxing. I think people are certain and convinced that Tank will land that punch the way Campbell did. Campbell is not good as Tank but he certainly has the boxing skills to stand his ground against any top lightweights in the world, not to forget he is an olympian gold medallist and the way Ryan stood his ground after eating that left-hand stunned lot of people including myself. That was a flash knockdown and I didn’t see his legs wobble even for a second. Not only he ate that strong left hand but then went to land his own left hook to the body and Campbell couldn’t beat the count.
Tank needs to do what he does best:- He can be outboxed as we have seen him in his previous fights like Cruz, Hector, and Barrios where we saw him losing rounds and it was a close fight until he lands that kryptonite which makes the difference. He can afford to do the same in this fight by losing some of the early rounds against Ryan and making Ryan comfortable and forcing him into doing a mistake eventually falling in Tank favour’s and him landing that left. Tank just needs to be patient and fight how Tank fights.
I think we already know what Tank does and what he is capable of, This fight is more about what Ryan has and what he is capable and that would dictate how competitive this fight would be.
Boxing fans are begging for a mega-fight
With constant comparison with UFC and seeing how they are putting up great fights one after another, generating massive PPVs with their best fighting the best not only once but multiple times. Boxing as a sport is not only losing an audience but also its existing structure and the way it is run is being questioned with promoters having too much of a say and preventing the fights from happening. Fans are frustrated with negotiations taking forever and eventually fighters blame each other, blaming promoters and promoters blaming fighters on social media. It is a mess seeing from the outside with Spence-Crawford being the best example. They still haven’t fought. With all this negativity around the sport of best not fighting the best and fighters not ready to risk their undefeated record, Ryan vs Tank comes as a blessing from the fan’s perspective. There are more competitive matchups than this that can be made but this is a start and we as boxing fans need to appreciate 2 fighters who are ready to risk their undefeated record.
What if the fight goes the distance
One thing is for sure, you could break down the fight in 100 possible ways, but none of them would have a dull style written over it. Also, someone is touching the canvas in the fight at least once. Their styles and then you add to that their egos just would not allow this fight to be boring in any way possible. The fact is that the majority of the predictions would be in favour of Tank winning by KO and the minority even predicting Ryan by KO but what if the fight goes the distance? Then we as boxing fans are in for a treat with me seeing multiple knockdowns from both sides which would essentially turn out to be a war and potentially being FOTY. Not only it raises the stock of Ryan and Tank then, but it makes the second fight between Tank and Ryan much more intriguing, much more marketable, and much more PPV buys than the 1st time and above all clearly, both fighters would have a name on their resume which post their retirement when they look back, would be proud of.
PPV Numbers
So based on Ryan’s social media popularity and Tank’s fanbase around the boxing world, I would think this fight does around 800,000 buys which would be huge and impressive, Putting up PPV numbers similar to Canelo-Plant or Wilder-Fury 2 would certainly put Ryan and Tank on the map as PPV stars.
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