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Gervonta Davis has his doubts about the legitimacy of Ryan Garcia’s mental health struggles.
When asked after a recent open workout whether he is stronger mentally than his rival, Davis suggested that Garcia’s mental health break last year was an “excuse” to “get out of stuff.” Garcia revealed less than two weeks after his July 2021 fight against Javier Fortuna was announced in April 2021 that he had withdrawn to focus on improving his mental health.
Garcia, 24, has been open since then about the importance of addressing mental health, even in the hardened world of boxing. Davis doesn’t buy it.
“You never heard no back-in-the-day fighter talk about mental health,” Davis said following his training session at 5th Ave. Gym in Miami Beach, Florida. “I think boxing people is the most, probably, the most – we need mental health to actually come in the ring and fight and things like that. I think we probably the most, the toughest out of the whole like combat sports. You know what I mean?
“I feel as though that people just was saying that to get out of stuff. Yeah, like a excuse because I feel as though like we all, to be honest, we all have like mental health [issues]. But I think [in] boxing we control it. You know how it is. You know what I mean?”
Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) eventually fought Fortuna (37-4-1, 26 KOs, 2 NC) this past July 16. The Victorville, California native dropped the Dominican southpaw three times – once apiece in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds – and knocked him out in the sixth round five months ago at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Garcia’s next fight could come against Baltimore’s Davis, who must first defeat another Dominican southpaw, Hector Luis Garcia, on January 7. The 12-round, 135-pound championship bout between Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) and Hector Luis Garcia (16-0, 10 KOs, 3 NC) will headline a Showtime Pay-Per-View event from Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
Ryan Garcia understandably took offense to Davis’ stance on boxers and mental health in Tweets he sent out Wednesday night.
“We all have mental health,” Garcia stated in reference to Davis’ quotes. “First of all you can’t even conjure up a clear sentence. I’ve boxed my whole life, fought over 200 times. I’d break a long time ago if it was I was fearful to fight. You simply have never done your research and simply have low IQ.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
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