Lightweight contender Gervonta Davis delivered another knockout Saturday in Washington, D.C., this one a ninth-round stoppage of previously unbeaten Hector Luis Garcia.
The victory underscored what more and more observers believe about “Tank”: that he’s one of the best in the business.
But was his performance enough to lift Davis – No. 10 going into the fight – higher on the pound-for-pound list?
No.
Garcia was hot, having outpointed Chris Colbert and then Roger Gutierrez to win a junior lightweight title last year. However, he moved up in weight to face Davis, which made an already difficult challenge almost impossible and limited the significance of the victory.
So Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) stays put … for now.
He and Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) have agreed to meet at a catch weight of 136 pounds in April. This Garcia isn’t on the pound-for-pound list but he’s a highly respected all-around fighter with Davis-like punching power.
Also, Ryan Garcia might be naturally bigger than Davis. His last two fights were at junior welterweight, a weight at which Davis has fought once.
A victory over Davis’ fellow social media star would carry more weight than his victory over Hector Garcia, although there are no guarantees that we’ll see any movement under any circumstances.
First, let’s see whether Davis and Ryan Garcia actually face one another. And then let’s see how the fight plays out.
Next pound-for-pounder up? No. 12 Artur Beterbiev is scheduled to defend his three light heavyweight belts against unranked Anthony Yarde on Jan. 28 in London (ESPN+).
Here’s what the list looks like at the moment:
BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND
- Terence Crawford – No fight scheduled.
- Naoya Inoue – No fight scheduled.
- Oleksandr Usyk – No fight scheduled.
- Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
- Dmitry Bivol – No fight scheduled.
- Tyson Fury – No fight scheduled.
- Juan Francisco Estrada – No fight scheduled.
- Canelo Alvarez– No fight scheduled.
- Jermell Charlo – Junior middleweight champion’s defense against Tim Tszyu on Jan. 28 was postponed after Charlo broke his hand.
- Gervonta Davis – No fight scheduled.
- Vasiliy Lomachenko – Reportedly in talks to challenge undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney but no official announcement has been made.
- Artur Beterbiev – Scheduled to defend his light heavyweight titles against Anthony Yarde on Jan. 28 in London.
- Shakur Stevenson – No fight scheduled.
- Roman Gonzalez – No fight scheduled.
- Devin Haney – Reportedly in talks to defend his undisputed lightweight championship against Vasiliy Lomachenko but no official announcement has been made..
Honorable mention (alphabetical order): David Benavidez (reportedly has reached an agreement to fight Caleb Plant early next year but no official announcement has been made); Jermall Charlo (no fight scheduled); Stephen Fulton Jr. (no fight scheduled); Kazuto Ioka (no fight scheduled); Josh Taylor (scheduled to defend his WBO junior welterweight title in a rematch with Jack Catterall on Feb. 4 in Glasgow, Scotland).