‘He just caught me with a good shot’: Ryan Garcia makes no excuses for loss to Gervonta Davis

Ryan Garcia was knocked out on a seventh round body shot courtesy Gervonta “Tank” Davis, but handled his loss with grace and professionalism, offering respect to his opponent and shaking his hand following the defeat.

Garcia (23-1, 19 KO) was down twice in the fight, once in the second round on a counter left hand from the southpaw Davis, and then on the delayed reaction body shot that ended the fight.

Here’s what Garcia told Showtime’s Jim Gray right after the fight:

On how he’s doing after the KO

“I’m good. Tank is a great fighter, I take my hat off to him. I know we talked a lot of shit coming up in here, but he knows what it is, it’s all love at the end of the day. I was honored to be in the ring with a great fighter and I respect him a lot, and you know how the business goes. But I want to say, you’re a good man, bro. You know how it is.” (The two shook hands.)

On what happened on the knockout

“He just caught me with a good shot. I don’t want to make no excuses, he caught me with a good shot and I just couldn’t recover, and that’s it. That’s all I got to say. He caught me with a good body shot, snuck underneath and caught me good.”

On whether he thought he would continue at first

“I couldn’t breathe. ... I was gonna get back up, but I just couldn’t get up.”

On what mistakes he made

“I think I should have pressured him a little harder near the ropes. I was giving him a little too much respect and I think that was my downfall. I think I gave him a little too much respect in the ring.”