Ryan Garcia made a huge admission about his loss to Gervonta Davis.
Garcia lost to Davis via 7th-round knockout during their fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. on Saturday. Garcia went down in the second round and again in the seventh. The 24-year-old boxer was hit with a liver shot from Davis and was unable to stand up to beat the referee’s 10-count.
Garcia spoke after the fight and revealed what he did wrong that led to the loss.
Garcia told reporters that he got “bored” and “too impatient.” He says that led him to try forcing some action, which was a poor strategy.
https://twitter.com/MMAFighting/status/1650173267057975296
“You know, I think my problem was I got a little too impatient,” Garcia said. “Davis was good. I think he does struggle with activity. I know he caught me with a good shot. But I think somebody that is just a little bit more disciplined than me, and has a little bit more activity, can give him a lotta problems.
“But, you know, you can’t count him out because he has great power. So, you just gotta be careful with Gervonta and play it smart. I didn’t play it smart. I started getting bored in there and I just started trying to press and I ended up getting knocked out. So, that was my mistake.”
Garcia continued to blame his inexperience.
“I just wanted to make the fight a little bit more exciting,” Garcia said. “Again, that’s my inexperience, I guess, at the biggest stage. I definitely messed up. I shoulda just made it boring, made him miss and just kept on the outside. But at one point I just decided to say, ‘Let’s start throwing ‘em,’ and obviously that didn’t work in my favor.”
It certainly did not. You need a lot of discipline to face someone like Davis, who is 29-0 with 27 knockouts. Opponents need to be careful about throwing punches with Davis, because that’s usually a losing strategy — just as it was for Garcia. At least Garcia knows what he needs to improve on for next time.
