THE TIME IS PRIME FOR SUPER BATTLE
GERVONTA DAVIS and Ryan Garcia will face each other in Las Vegas this weekend and it has the feeling of a super fight between two rising kids of the sport.
Yet they’re not really two young guns ready to let loose.
Davis is 28 with 28 fights under his belt, while Garcia is 24 with 23 outings to his name.
But with boxing’s best often not fighting each other until they’ve been through years of negotiations and ‘will they, won’t they’ talks, means we have become accustomed to thinking anything under 30 is now young in the sport.
When Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao finally fought they had a combined age of 74.
For Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin’s first fight, the latter was well into his 30s.
If Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr ever get it on, they’ll have a combined age of at least 68.
And if Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk did fight this year, then they would be at a combined age of 70.
That’s why Davis and Garcia taking each other on when still in their 20s makes it feel like it is some bold early career fight for both.
In fact, they’re both probably in their prime.
That is certainly the case with Davis, as Garcia’s time out of the ring potentially means a slight lack of experience when they come together at the T-Mobile Arena.
Of course, sports science and the fact boxers don’t fight as much as they used to means they can now peak at a later stage.
But just consider the fact that Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler were 27 and 30 respectively when they had their famous three-round epic in 1985.
Four years before, Hearns first fought a 25-year-old Sugar Ray Leonard.
Defining nights that set up bigger bouts in the future.
Of course, these fighters also boxed well into their 30s and had big nights as they aged.
But they took on the top challengers when they were in their 20s and phrases like letting fights ‘marinate’ to cash in on bigger purses in the future would have been deemed nonsense. That’s why Garcia and Davis deserve credit for taking this fight now.
But it should just be the norm if this great sport wants to keep fans interested.
It’s a fight so good it doesn’t need a world-title trinket on the line to sell it to fans. Two unbeaten boxers putting their reputations on the line but both young enough to bounce back if they do suffer a loss. It’s just how it should be – and others should take note.