Floyd Mayweather Jr. has revealed the sacrifices that Ryan Garcia must make in order to fight Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
The multi-division former world champion believes that the young American should be ready to fight at 135lbs, and a fight could be made within the next three months.
‘Tank’ has often fought at lightweight but in recent years has stepped up to 140lbs as well as down to 130lbs, so Mayweather may be looking to take advantage of his own fighter’s versatility compared to the desires of Garcia.
Garcia fought at a catchweight of 139lbs in April in his comeback fight against Emmanuel Tagoe, and at 140lbs for his fight with Javier Fortuna last Saturday.
In the aftermath of his most recent victory, Garcia announced he would never fight at lightweight again, and said he wanted to make a bout with Davis at 140lbs.
However, speaking to Fighthype, Mayweather made it plain what he needed from Garcia.
“The main man in the sport of boxing right now is the man that is attached to me, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis,” he said.
“That’s the only thing this kid, Ryan Garcia, that’s the only thing he know is Tank.
“‘I want to fight Tank; I don’t care if it’s the biggest fight.’ Okay, you want to fight Tank. In boxing, we make sacrifices.
“So, we know that Tank fights at 135. If you want to fight Tank at 135, we can make it happen before the end of the year.”
Mayweather claimed to be ignorant of the fact that Garcia’s most recent outings were above 135lbs and does not believe his age yet counts aganst him.
“You just fought at 135, so why can’t you fight at 135 again?” said Mayweather.
“He’s young. I could see if he was a lot older.
“He’s not in his 30s. When you get older, guys get older, and the weight settles in, and then you be like, ‘Okay, I can’t make the weight anymore.' But he’s young, and we have to make sacrifices.
“If there’s certain things you want in the sport of boxing, like Ryan Garcia really wants this fight with Tank. So if you really want this fight with Tank, sacrifice. We have to make sacrifices.
“Even though I knew I wasn’t a 154-pounder, I knew there were certain sacrifices that I had to make. Oscar De La Hoya chose the gloves, chose the judges, and he chose everything. He chose the weight class; he chose everything.
“I knew I was the better fighter; I felt I was the better fighter, and I showed y’all that I was the better fighter. Guess what I did? I made sacrifices.
“So if you feel like you can beat Tank, and you the better fighter, then guess what? Make sacrifices. You just fought at 135 [in January 2021 against Luke Campbell]. We can fight in 90 days if you want to. Whatever you want to do. Ain’t going to get smoked.
“Of course, Tank is the A-side. Ryan hasn’t won a world title yet. We can’t talk about no interim belt. We don’t talk about that. That don’t count.
“We don’t take nothing away from the guy Fortuna, but he was just an opponent. I’m going to have Tank in the best shape of his life. Just know, when he hit that boy [Ryan Garcia], he’s not going to wake up until next year.
“It’s crazy that everybody is calling Tank’s name. I’m so proud of Tank. I told him this was going to happen. We were sitting on one of them big yachts out in Miami, sitting back, talking and chilling, taking the jet skis out. I told him, ‘Don’t worry, before you know it, everybody is calling me out but soon everybody is going to be calling you out.’”