There's been quite the back and forth between rising stars Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis.
Garcia has made it clear that he's taking aim at a potential showdown with Davis before the end of 2020, and the 135-pound "regular" WBA champion has fired off a series of tweets that he's more than welcome to the idea.
There has also been chatter regarding which fighter is the bigger star. Davis has suggested that Garcia lacks the star power to fill up an arena as he did in his last fight when an announced crowd of 14,129 fans filled up the State Farm Arena in Atlanta to see his 12th-round TKO victory over Yuriorkis Gamboa back in December.
Garcia will get his opportunity to prove his drawing power on Feb. 14, when he faces Francisco Fonseca at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. However, the 21-year-old with over 4.8 million followers on Instagram doesn't think it's much of a contest when it comes to who the bigger attraction is.
"His last fight, he really didn’t fill that arena up," Garcia said to DAZN News about Davis' last fight in Atlanta. "I heard a lot of things. They gave away a lot of tickets on that one. But he is a draw. I'm not saying anything else (about that) but I’m just saying you’re (Davis) not a bigger star than me. It’s not comparable."
When it comes to their presence on social media, Garcia is right. He has more than double the followers on Instagram, although they are just a few thousand apart on Twitter.
But Garcia's presence on social media has long been his calling card as he looks to convert his following into a new generation of boxing fans. Until then, he has made it his purpose to prove that he's far more than just a pretty face on Instagram when he begins his 2020 campaign against Fonseca, live on DAZN.
While the debate of who's the bigger draw rages on, one thing that Garcia believes he has the upper hand over Davis is in his dedication to the sport.
"The thing that Gervonta lacks and this is the key thing, you could be like f—ing like Mike Tyson, but he doesn’t have the discipline," Garcia said. "He just doesn’t have the commitment to the game. I think he got a lot of money. I think he wants to work hard, but he remembers how much s— he has. All this money he has, so he’s like f— it, I’ll take the day off.
Garcia believes that his commitment to the sport, regardless of how much fame and fortune he has, will be the difference-maker if and when they meet inside of a boxing ring.
"Me, I don’t have that mindset. I’ll get a lot of money but I’m like go, go, go," Garcia said. "I forget that I have it. I’m not even spending more than $20. When you’re known like that, you don’t have to spend money. They give me s— for free. I’m not focused on money. I want what I’m worth. I want to train. I’m never out of shape. You’ve never caught at a place where I look fat."
Regardless of who the bigger star is, there's no doubt that a Davis-Garcia fight would be one of the most anticipated showdowns in boxing. And Garcia refuses to take away anything from Tank's accomplishments thus far. For him, this is the perfect recipe for a major fight.
"(Gervonta) is a talented fighter and he’s explosive," Garcia said. "When we fight each other; both of us will make this fight huge."