Tim Bradley says Ryan Garcia shouldn’t have let Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and his management “punk” him by getting him to agree to a rehydration clause of 10 lbs and a 136-lb catchweight for their fight on April 22d on Showtime & DAZN PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Bradley feels that Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs) should have rejected that, because he’s going to be “affected” by these two weight-draining stipulations that Tank Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) and his management got him to agree to.
It’s interesting that Tank’s management chose to use not just one but two weight tactics to gain an edge over Ryan, as Gervonta is already the favorite with the oddsmakers. Why would he need a rehydration clause & a 136-lb catchweight to weaken Ryan? It screams out that they don’t have confidence in Tank that he can win without having an advantage.
Does Tank Davis need Ryan to be weakened to beat him?
“You already weakened the guy, and now you’re going to weaken him even more so you can have an advantage? How fair is that? You didn’t do that Mario Barrios” said Tim Bradley to Fighthype about Gervonta Davis putting a double whammy in the contract for Ryan Garcia, with a 136-lb catchweight and a 10-lb rehydration clause with an upper limit of 146 lbs.
“I’m not with that. A-side, this side,” Bradley said about him not agreeing to Tank Davis using his negotiation muscle to force a huge weight advantage over Ryan Garcia to help him win the fight. “You’re already winning the money side. The A-side is the money side.
“When you start weakening a fighter where you can have an advantage, that’s wrong because you can blow up, and you’re not a little guy either. You ain’t not small guy. You’re probably coming down from 160. I been seeing your cheeks. You’ve been having chipmunk cheeks.
“You’re going to blow up, but you’re not going to let him blow up after the [weigh-in], so you can have an advantage. I just think it’s wrong. I understand the history and all that, but Mayweather and those guys, it was a different time in their careers when they did it.
“It was a whole different circumstance. It doesn’t apply to this circumstance now. Both of these guys are young guys, and Tank ain’t even on the level of a Mayweather or Sugar Ray Leonard. He ain’t on that level,” said Bradley.
Gervonta won’t receive credit if he wins
“With Tank’s career right now at 28 years old, he ain’t even a Hall of Fame fighter,” said Bradley.]. “I’m not saying that lightly because his resume is thin. So for him to say, ‘I’m the A-side, this is what I want to do,’ it’s completely wrong. You know it’s to his advantage.
“If he does win this fight, it’s going to be like, ‘Oh, you beat Ryan Garcia.’ After you dehydrated him, and you know he can’t make 135 anymore. So you’re going to make him make 136? Okay, alright. Oh, it’s going to affect him,” said Bradley when asked if the 136-lb catchweight and rehydration clause is going to affect Ryan Garcia. It’s definitely going to affect him.
“It’s great because Ryan and his people agreed to it. Ryan agreed to everything. Some things like that, you can’t allow. You can’t be punked like that, bro. I’m sorry.
“I like my money slow & steady. I don’t like to rush the process, because there will be mistakes along the way, and Ryan Garcia can’t afford to be having no mistakes like this. I think this is truly a mistake on his part,” said Bradley about Ryan possibly agreeing to the weight clause & 136-lb catchweight for the big money he’ll get fighting Tank.
“It was a huge mistake by him and his team by allowing him and his people to force him into this rehydration. I’m going in at whatever weight I’m comfortable at.
“I don’t know what they have in the contract as far as what they put on because if they have the weight in the contract and he comes in over it, I already know there’s a stipulation in there. There’s no doubt about it.
“So what I would do is come in at what I’m comfortable with because, guess what? You’re not going to knock me out and embarrass me when I’m not at my full potential.
“No, absolutely not. I know whatever we got in the contract, that’s fine, but now you’re in a situation where you take it or leave it. ‘I’m over the weight. Now you take it or leave it. What are you going to do, Tank? You’re a bad boy, right? Come fight me. Let’s go,’ and he’s going to have to fight regardless of what the weight is. So do what you need to do, Garcia. So you feel comfortable,” said Bradley.
