Gervonta 'Tank' Davis vs. Ryan Garcia How one of boxing's biggest fight came to be

GERVONTA «TANK» DAVIS and Ryan Garcia stood face to face last month in Times Square, a rare — and unexpected — sight for myriad reasons.

Years and years of fighting words on social media had actually led to signed contracts for a real fight inside the ring, an occurrence far too seldom the norm in the increasingly fractured boxing business.

This matchup pits two of the sport's top stars, undefeated fighters under the age of 30, who carry vastly different fan bases — many of whom don't typically watch boxing.

Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) hails from Baltimore and for a long time enjoyed the imprimatur of Floyd Mayweather along with all the celebrities from the hip-hop industry and sports world that accompany such an association. Now without Mayweather, Davis still owns a massive collection of celebrity supporters who are mesmerized by his crushing power and quiet aura. He boasts 4.6 million followers on Instagram.

Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) has 9.5 million followers on Instagram, plus more than 5 million on TikTok. He carries a vastly different fan base into this showdown. The Mexican-American from Southern California is often underestimated due to his model looks — he's sponsored by Amiri, formerly Dior — and legion of influencer followers. Often, he's mistaken for an influencer-turned-boxer himself, but he was a decorated amateur who began boxing at age 7 before mastering the art of self-promotion across social media and beyond.

Typically when a fight of this magnitude is constructed, it's past the matchup's viable expiration date in regard to the fighters' athletic primes — as was the case for Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao, which nonetheless was a commercial success. Given the long-held bad blood between Al Haymon's Premier Boxing