Ryan Garcia‘s win over Devin Haney is in the past, but a pair of drug tests continue to rear their ugly head. There is conjecture about the positive results and there is still a ton to be determined about whether Garcia willingly cheated.
Japanese boxer Naoya Inoue has been one of the most dominant boxers in the world over the last decades but he has only dominated in some of the lightest weight classes. He is a two-division undisputed champion of both the Banthamweight and Super Benthamweight divisions. Last Monday, he defeated Mexican Luis Nery after he got dropped early in the fight. Getting dropped by ‘Pantera’ was a wake up call for Inoue that got him to deliver one of the most dominating performances of his career. Such dominance invites anybody to speculate on Inoues chances against other great boxers from slightly heavier weight classes. We are specifically talking about Gervonta Davis, who is the current king of the Super Featherweight and Lightweight divisions.
Should Inoue fight Gervonta Davis?
There is always a frowned upon aspect of fighters from lower weight classes moving up to heavier tend to have a much harder time to win fights against their opponents. Inoue moving up a weight lass or two means he will finally get to challenge himself after dominating his usual weight classes. A perfect example of this is Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, who decided to risk it by moving up to Light Heavyweight to fight Dmitry Bivol and really struggled to keep himself composed. For Inoue, the challenge would be ultimate considering he is fighting Gervonta Davis, one of the scariest boxers in recent years. Boxing trainer Virgil Hunter is the on who speculated on Inoue’s next steps for his career.
Speaking to Fight Hype, Hunter said: “I don’t think Gervonta [Davis] should go below 135. I’m sure Inoue walks around at ’40, ’45 – 145. [Inoue would] have to come up just like everybody else. Where is the value of [Davis] coming to a catchweight to fight you? You’re big in Japan, and I’m big in the States. So there should not be any weight concession. ‘If you want to fight, come and fight me.’ Let’s not make any excuses. Rigondeaux fought Lomachenko; there was no catchweight involved. He dared to take that opportunity. [Rigondeaux] came up short, but he dared to take it. Charlo dared to fight Canelo at 168, coming from 154. So it’s only a few pounds north. You’re getting a little older. I’m sure you could carry the weight comfortably. So I wouldn’t make any concessions for that fight.”
The upcoming June 15 fight between Gervonta Davis and Frank Martin is heavily assumed to be one-sided. However, ‘Tank’, majorly attributed as someone who can rarely be defeated faced trouble when he sparred with his next opponent. Could that be a matter of concern?
With just a little over a month left in his fight against the ‘Ghost’, Davis has kicked off the promotions for the fight. Their first press conference on May 4 went down with enough drama to last them till fight night. With Tank making references to Martin’s girlfriend and even crashing his interview leading to fist fights, the day was quite eventful. The same day, in another media interaction, Tank underscored that the fight won’t be as easy as most think it will be for him. After all, if Martin could faze him in a sparring session, why can’t he do the same on fight night?
Tank noted on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game Podcast, “You caught me one time.” He further remarked, “I sparred already; he was scared to spar. I jumped on him. He’s a southpaw. He threw the brick hand. Boom! That’s what caught me.” However, he did not let that incident govern his winning chances for June 15. He announced, “It wasn’t like, boom and… Hell no. Everybody in here know, if I get touched, I’m coming on that a**.”
While it is unclear when this sparring session took the course, it is certain that Tank remembers every bit of it. While he was caught briefly in the said sparring session, there are chances he recuperated quickly.
Perhaps it’s the same sparring video Martin alluded to earlier in a media interaction. Martin revealed that Tank had urged to show him a video of “some” sparring, but ultimately didn’t show the full clip. Martin said, “Man, it’s sparring. We’re fighting June 15, I don’t even want to keep talking about the sparring. He was going to show me the video, he ain’t show it. He showed a certain part and then they got turned up and all that, but it wasn’t nothing that he showed.”
“We fighting now so the story of sparring, we can go ahead sweep that under the rug and when we fight June 15, it’s on,” Frank Martin added. Despite being the favorite, Gervonta Davis, the WBA Regular lightweight champion, can’t afford to overlook his opponent. Frank Martin boasts an impressive undefeated record of 18-0, with 12 of those victories coming by knockout.
While he remained confident that he would win, Tank was kind enough to give an important piece of advice to Frank Martin.
Don’t walk the path of Ryan Garcia, advises Gervonta Davis
Ahead of his fight against Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia showed the world that he was a regular drinker, with parties lasting days. However, when the fight arrived, he proved to those who assumed that his habits would make him lose big. He won through a knockout. Martin, who was earlier seen partying with Garcia, does not have that capacity, noted Tank.
In the same conversation, the Baltimore-based fighter advised his 29-year-old opponent, “You’ve been with Ryan(Garcia)..been drinking, been out with him partying. Do you have the skills to be out partying and missing(training)?! You don’t have the skills to be doing that. You started(boxing) when you was 15. If I started at 15..I’d be grinding(training all day). You trash!”
Do you think Gervonta Davis will continue his winning streak against Frank Martin?
What comes next for Naoya Inoue?
Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs), one of the very best in the world, had to rise from the canvas against Luis Nery (35-2, 27 KOs) to secure an emphatic sixth-round victory over his mandatory challenger.
Referee Michael Griffin halted the contest while Nery was on the canvas following a heavy right hand from Inoue.
However, speculation has begun on who the four-weight world champion will face moving forward.
Post-fight, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum discussed the possibility of Inoue facing his IBF mandatory challenger, Sam Goodman, with a date targeted for September or October.
More wild speculation has come from none other than trainer Virgil Hunter, who discussed the prospect of a possible fight between Inoue and Gervonta Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) on FightHype.
Despite the discrepancies in weight between junior featherweight champion Inoue and lightweight champion Davis, Hunter believes a catchweight contest would not be needed for a hypothetical fight between two of boxing’s most prominent names.
“I don’t think Gervonta [Davis] should go below 135,” Hunter told Fighthype. “I’m sure Inoue walks around at ’40, ’45 – 145. [Inoue would] have to come up just like everybody else. Where is the value of [Davis] coming to a catchweight to fight you? You’re big in Japan, and I’m big in the States. So there should not be any weight concession. ‘If you want to fight, come and fight me.’”
Hunter used the examples of Guillermo Rigondeaux and Jermell Charlo, fighters who stepped up in weight to challenge Vasiliy Lomachenko and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, respectively, in recent years. Ultimately, Hunter thinks the weight difference between Inoue and Davis should not be used as an excuse for the fight not to happen.
“Let’s not make any excuses,” Hunter said. “Rigondeaux fought Lomachenko; there was no catchweight involved. He dared to take that opportunity.”
“[Rigondeaux] came up short, but he dared to take it. Charlo dared to fight Canelo at 168, coming from 154. So it’s only a few pounds north. You’re getting a little older. I’m sure you could carry the weight comfortably. So I wouldn’t make any concessions for that fight.”
Many fans and followers might find the analogy a bit unexpected for their tastes. Ryan Garcia believes that the fight with Devin Haney was way tougher than the one he had with Gervonta Davis. So much so, the former told Patrick Bet-David during their conversation that ‘The Dream’ would rather defeat ‘Tank’ if ever there is a clash between the two. The whole exposition from someone currently embroiled in one of boxing’s most embarrassing controversies might sound a bit far-fetched to many. So why would he say that the boxer whom he dropped three times ten days ago proved to be a much harder nut to crack?
Moreover, apart from the fight itself, both the lead-up and the aftermath have been nothing short of controversial. On the day of the final weigh-in, he missed weight! Following the fight, reports of Ryan Garcia failing drug tests soon took over the boxing world by storm. Ever since, he has been fending off fire, especially from Team Haney and their supporters. So to call out his archrival as a much heavier-duty fighter than a past opponent is something a diehard may find hard to contemplate.
Ryan Garcia and Shocking Contrasts
“I will beat Gervonta Davis worse than I beat Devin Haney. Devin Haney is a harder fight than Gervonta Davis,” said Ryan Garcia. He was talking to Patrick Bet-David on his show. The latter asked if there was a fight between Devin Haney and Gervonta Davis, and then who emerged as the winner. ‘KingRy’ replied, “Haney beats Tank.”
He continued, “I don’t think Tank could; ah, Tank won’t get to Haney. Definitely, Haney will beat Tank.” At the beginning of the show, Bet-David wanted to know if Garcia could distinguish between the way Devin Haney hit and the way Gervonta Davis struck. Ryan Garcia replied, “Well, Haney, um, actually caught me, I mean Gervonta. I didn’t really it wasn’t a hard fight; I was just weak. That’s not a hard fight for me.“
The months following the fight announcement saw Ryan Garcia at his bizarre best. Especially the outlandish social media activities took everyone by surprise. Many even thought whether he he is mentally fit enough to pursue the fight.
Days of Highs and Lows
Then Ryan Garcia exceeded the mandated weight limit by 3.2 pounds. As a result, he forfeited his claim to Haney’s WBC light welterweight belt. But that was not all; he also ended up parting with reportedly $600,000 of his purse money.
But perhaps the disaster was reserved for after-fights. At the beginning of the month, increasing news reported that Ryan Garcia returned positive test results for the banned performance-enhancing drug (PED) ‘Ostarine’. Garcia, though, proclaimed his innocence and denied any sort of involvement in wrongdoing. Per the latest available reports, he seems to have requested his B-Sample be tested.
But amidst all the commotion, what came as a surprise to many was the expression of support Ryan Garcia received from Gervonta Davis. So much so that the WBA lightweight has signaled a green light for a tentative rematch with ‘KingRy’. But now, given how Ryan Garcia has rated Devin Haney so highly, many fans will be looking forward to how ‘Tank’ reacts to the astounding revelations.
What’s your take on Ryan Garcia’s assessment of the two fights? Do you agree with him? Please share your views with us in the comments below.
Boxer Ryan Garcia had been defending himself from the two alleged failed drug tests that came out after his fight against Devin Haney. He has always maintained his innocence and said that if he took these substances, he wasn’t on purpose and his food may have been tempted. In a third test that was conducted this week, the results came out negative for a third banned substance called nandrolone. The first two allged failed tests were for banned substances ostarine and a nandrolone metabolite. However, that second positive test required further analysis. After that analysis, Ryan Garcia has been cleared of nandrolone usage but that didn’t stop people like Claressa Shields to go after Ryan Garcia.
A fellow fighter who has always defended Ryan from this scandal is none other than Gervonta Davis, who defeated Ryan when they fought. ‘Tank‘ has always maintained that he doesn’t believe Ryan Garcia would use a banned substance on purpose. On the X platform, he even defended Ryan from Shields’ attacks. Writing: “So Ryan beat buddy ass fair and square. What the French bulldog face lady [Claressa Shields] have to say about this? And she blocked me. I should’ve blocked her as for the way she look. Her scare me.”
Ryan Garcia has been cleared of his second positive test
In the latest turn of events, journalist Dan Rafael was the one who reported that Ryan Garcia has been cleared from his second banned substance usage but the first one remains pending after an appeal from Garcia’s team. Meanwhile, Ryan started taking victory laps on his X account and even got Devin Haney to react. This is what he wrote: “So yall realize I didn’t fail the tests now. No substance other then this imaginary ostrich substance. Level so low wouldn’t have any effect. THEY TRIED BUT NO LIE STANDS. PRAISE GOD.”
Gervonta Davis has defended Ryan Garcia after he escaped a positive test for a second banned substance.
Garcia beat Haney in an astonishing upset after dropping his rival three times, but the win was thrown into controversy after he tested positive for ostarine on two VADA drug tests in an around the contest.
‘King Ry’ also tested positive for a metabolite of second banned substance nandrolone, but it required further analysis and was pending enquiry.
Journalist Dan Rafael obtained the report and revealed that a third test in the lab did not come back positive for banned substance nandrolone, which cleared him of use of a second banned substance.
However, it did still show readings for ostarine and he will be required to prove his innocence.
Davis has reacted to the news on Twitter, igniting beef with female boxing star Claressa Shields, writing: So Ryan beat buddy ass fair and square.
“What the French bulldog face lady [Claressa Shields] have to say about this?”
‘Tank’ has surprisingly leapt to the defence of former rival Garcia, who he fought and stopped in April 2023.
He even approached the fighter he conquered in private messages, where Garcia denied the claims and urged the American to pursue a rematch.
His 25-year-old rival has been adamant throughout the process that he did not deliberately used PEDs.
He has even now formally requested a B-sample to be undertaken in a bid to clear his name.
In his latest interview, he continued to deny the claims but did suggest he was ‘high’ from smoking during the win over Haney.
He said: “If I was on steroids, I would have been in way better shape.
“I was literally drinking every day, smoking weed – I did not stop, not even until the f****ng day of the fight. I got in there high as f***, and I beat his a**.
“It was a walk in the f***ng park. ‘I had harder fights in sparring bro. It was not hard at all.
“Even Devin was like: ‘I’ve never been outclassed that much, that easily.’ Bro, steroids did not help that, brother.”
Gervonta Davis was Floyd Mayweather‘s prodigy, and he gave an interview recently after the press conference he had for the Frank Martin fight and what was more surprising than anything else was that he said he would like to fight Floyd Mayweather.
Aside from Mayweather, Davis named Shakur Stevenson, Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, however, he specified that the one who would give him the most fight in case he could get in the ring with him, would be his former mentor.
Davis says he has a better career than Mayweather at his age
Davis already has history with the first 3 he mentioned and even fought Ryan Garcia; he has already had words with Shakur Stevenson and recently starred in a brawl in Las Vegas after the Canelo Alvarez vs Jaime Munguia fight.
Meanwhile, Floyd shared an image on social networks about his next fight in Mexico City and although there are no details of the fight, the mere fact that ‘Money’ wants to fight in Mexico has sports fans very excited.
Although it has not yet been confirmed who will be Mayweather‘s opponent in the next exhibition, there have been rumors linking him with several opponents, including a proposed rematch with Gotti III, which did not materialize.
Floyd Mayweather retired from boxing in 2017 undefeated after giving Olympic boxing lessons to several fighters including Canelo Alvarez, however, rumor has it that ‘Money’ is extremely upset with his prodigy Gervonta Davis.
What did Gervonta Davis say?
Gervonta is following the Mayweather school of bragging about his boxing talent and power, this apparently went to his head, as in an interview, Tank said he would beat Mayweather.
As expected, Mayweather could not sit idly by, and rumor has it that Mayweather may be coming back from retirement just to prove that he is the ultimate authority in his category in professional boxing.
After a press conference to promote his fight against Frank Martin, Davis responded.
“Me and Floyd? A beatdown,” Davis responded.
While it is highly unlikely that Mayweather and Davis will face each other, given their significant age difference and Mayweather‘s retirement from professional boxing in August 2017, the former five-weight world champion has continued to participate in exhibition bouts and is considered active in the sport.
His most recent exhibition bout was in June 2023 against John Gotti III, which ended in chaos when Gotti was disqualified, triggering a pitched battle in the ring.
Although it has not yet been confirmed who Mayweather‘s opponent will be in the next show, there have been rumors linking him to several opponents, including a proposed rematch with Gotti, which failed to materialize.
The Mayweather-Davis feud
The relationship between Mayweather and Davis began to deteriorate after Davis left Mayweather Promotions, the company that guided him to his first world championship in 2017 and collaborate exclusively with his advisor Al Haymon.
Frank Martin, boasting an unblemished record of 18 wins in as many fights, is considered one of the top lightweights in recent years. However, his upcoming opponent, Gervonta Davis, has issued a stark warning, suggesting that Martin cannot afford to slack off in training, especially after seen partying with Ryan Garcia.
Scheduled to meet on June 15 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight title, the clash between Davis and Martin has already sparked controversy beyond the two fighters.
During a recent face-to-face encounter, defending champion “Tank” Davis raised concerns about Martin’s commitment, referencing his social activities with Garcia. Davis questioned, “Do you have the skills to do that?”
Tank questions his rival’s skills
“You’ve been with Ryan (Garcia)… been drinking, been out with him partying,”Davis stated. He continued, “Do you have the skills to be out partying and missing (training)?! You don’t have the skills to be doing that.”
Davis highlighted Martin’s late start in boxing, noting, “You started(boxing) when you were 15. If I started at 15… If I started when I was 15… I’m taking that sh*t off. I’m grinding (training all day), I ‘I’m grinding!”
In a press conference, Davis further dismissed Martin’s bravado, stating, “He put on for the people that he comes with here, because they think they’re ‘thugs’ and sh*t like that but I’m telling you, it’s a different beast in front of him.”
Asserting his dominance, Davis warned, “Nobody that’s walking with him, holding his hand, is going to be able to save him June 15th. I’m telling you. And it’s a lot of s**t built up, a lot built up, and I’m going to take it out on him. Sorry it’s going to be him.”
The Davis-Martin bout will headline a card featuring fights between David Benavidez and Oleksander Gvozdyk, the rematch of Edwin de los Santos and Jose Valenzuela, and Demetrius Andrade against David Morrell, among others.