UFC star Conor McGregor had some encouraging words for Ryan Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) after his knockout loss to Gervonta “Tank Davis” (29-0, 27 KOs) in Las Vegas this past Saturday.
McGregor, among the host of athletes and celebrities in attendance at T-Mobile Arena, consoled Garcia, who suffered the first defeat of his professional boxing career.
“He’s 1-0 on you, you’re the two biggest names in the division, I want to see it again,” McGregor told Garcia. “I want to see it again now, and I want to see it with no rehydration clause – seriously. All the respect in the world to you. You’re the future, you’re the future of this game, and I’m going to watch you all the way.”
Garcia, 24, later shared video of the interaction with McGregor on Instagram.
“All good he’s up on me!” Garcia wrote. “I went thru fire for this fight. I’m going to come back stronger!! Rack up a couple more wins to run this back! Hopefully we can do it at 140 no clauses! Great Job to gervonta great fight and fighter!!!”
Gervonta Davis remains undefeated after seventh-round knockout victory over Ryan Garcia
Referee Thomas Taylor called a stoppage to the bout after reaching the count of 10 at 1 minutes, 44 seconds of Round 7. The finishing blow was a left hand to the liver of Garcia, which knocked him down to one knee, struggling to catch his breath. Whereas Garcia quickly made it to his feet and beat the count after Davis rocked him with a left hand counter to the face in Round 2, this shot was different.
Even if Davis didn’t know it at the time.
“I thought he was going to get up,” Davis said, via ESPN, ‘but I like to play mind games, so when he was looking at me, I was looking at him trying to tell him, ‘Get up,’ and then he just shook his head, ‘No.’”
Like his adversary, Garcia believed he would be able to get up.
“I couldn’t breathe,” Garcia said. “I was going to get back up, but I just couldn’t get up… He just caught me with a good shot. I don’t want to make no excuses in here… I just couldn’t recover… He caught me with a good body shot, snuck under me and caught me good.”
Davis, 28, has cemented himself as one of the faces of boxing, going as far to say he’s the undisputed face of the sport while speaking with Showtime reporter Jim Gray after the fight.
