Ryan Garcia predicts 2nd-round KO win over Tank Davis

Ryan Garcia is predicting an easy night of work when he takes on Gervonta "Tank" Davis.

While his long-hated rival is preparing for his 12-round affair against Hector Luis Garcia on Saturday, Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) has launched a verbal assault against Tank. The popular and rising contender canceled a tentatively scheduled January stay-busy bout against Mercito Gesta to focus solely on Davis, whom Garcia believes will succumb via KO during their April slated Showtime Pay-Per-View event.

“Prediction for the fight – I say I'll beat him in about two rounds,” Garcia said on the Joe Pomp Show. “Part of me knows that I am just better than him. What I've seen from him. What I know about myself. What I know they are underestimating, just by the way he speaks and just how he fights. But my main thing is that I don't think he's really ever understood adversity in a professional ring in his career.

“I think he's always had an understanding that nothing can go wrong because of the talent he's facing. I don't think he's felt any risk in the ring. When I'm in there, obviously he knows it's a different level of speed and power, and that I am not oblivious to the different shots he's trying to land, which are sometimes obvious that he throws. I think that he'll start facing the pressure that this is a lot harder than he may have thought. And I won't let off the gas when I feel that. But this is boxing. You have to make adjustments on the fly. This is only what I see from the outside. On the inside, it's all going to play out.”

Davis (27-0, 25 KOs), a former junior lightweight titleholder, has knocked out 17 of his last 18 opponents, and holds a 92% career knockout ratio. However, Garcia is determined to become the first man to defeat Davis.

“I just really don't know if he's ever felt that feeling of 'how do I figure this out' because he is just way stronger than people and he's way faster than the opponents he's been fighting,” said Garcia. “Even when he's had problems, he's always known that he can just get up in them and start landing his hard shots because his opponents don't have the snap to make him cautious. And I think he's underestimating my intelligence a little bit. Because I've created my own type of style. My defensive moves are not flashy. My footwork is not flashy. Everything I do is not flashy, but it's very subtle. That's why I really don't get hit.”