Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia pledge violence in year’s biggest fight

T he genuine antipathy between America’s two most popular and divisive boxers was laid bare on Thursday when Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia each pledged to break the other’s jaw during the final press conference ahead of their fastly approaching scrap on the Las Vegas Strip.

“I touch that jaw, I’m telling you, you’re going to sleep. I promise you,” seethed Davis, the 28-year-old three-weight champion from Baltimore nicknamed Tank, from beneath a baseball cap that read I ♥ SEX. “I’ll probably break your jaw. Facts. Don’t even bring your mother or your daughter.”

Said Garcia, the 24-year-old from southern California whose matinee-idol looks have long belied his own cruel intentions between the ropes: “I just need a single shot. Just one. This one. Trust me. The left hook. When I touch anything, you’re going to sleep. I feel like I’m gonna break your jaw with a hook. I just see you on the floor with a broken jaw.”

The two-way trash talk, which extended deep into both fighters’ camps throughout Thursday’s rollicking proceedings, lent additional spice to an event that hardly needs it: two unbeaten knockout merchants early in their primes, represented by different companies and broadcasters, putting aside their differences to make the crossover fight the people have clamored for and their down-bad sport desperately needs. For once the promotional bluster rings true. The summit meeting between Davis and Garcia on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena is the year’s most anticipated bout and one of the biggest matches that can be made today.

Call it boxing’s first Gen-Z megafight, borne from a protracted feud that’s largely unfolded on social media over two years and leaning into a future where followers are listed on the tale