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Boxing well and truly gets underway for the year this weekend, with a title fight between Gervonta Davis and Hector Luis Garcia. Both men are undefeated and will step into the ring on Saturday night at the Capital One Arena to contest the WBA Regular Lightweight title.
While this may seem like a mouth-watering contest on paper, the reality is it should be nothing more than a warm-up for the current champion Gervonta Davis. The 28-year-old is a three-division champion and a cut above his challenger Garcia. However, this doesn’t mean there aren’t great bets to be made on this fight still, which we’ll highlight below in this betting preview.
| Belts: | WBA Regular Lightweight Title |
| Venue: | Capital One Arena, Washington, District of Columbia, United States |
| Date: | January 7th, 2023, from 8:00 PM EST |
Here’s a quick overview of the Davis Garcia odds from the top USA boxing bookmakers ahead of Saturday’s bout:
Bookmakers have this fight overwhelmingly in favor of Gervonta Davis, with odds of 1.07 (1/14) for the current WBA Regular Lightweight champion to retain his belt. For the challenger Hector Luis Garcia to win, the odds are almost as long as it gets in boxing, at 8.00 (7/1) for a Garcia victory.
Many bonuses24/7 supportMobile appsGreat supportMobile appsLive bettingLive bettingMany sportsFast payoutsWelcome offersFast payouts24/7 supportVIP programLive gamesMany bonusesCombine the professional records of these two men, and you have a daunting tally of 43 wins, and zero defeats. However, when we dig a little deeper into each fighter’s track record and form, it becomes apparent that Davis holds a heavy advantage.
American Gervonta Davis debuted as a professional boxer a decade ago, in March 2013. Since then, Davis has torn through 27 opponents, never tasting defeat. In this time, he’s won world titles in three different weight classes, most recently claiming the WBA World Lightweight belt. Davis heads into this clash fresh off, knocking out Rolando Romero in his title defense last May.
Davis is one of the most notorious knockout artists across all of boxing’s weight classes. Of his 27 fights, only two have ever gone the distance. That means that 25 men have stepped into the ring with Davis and failed to get back up again. Davis’s raw power often can hide his fight IQ, which is also excellent and can win him fights when his knockout ability doesn’t.
Hector Luis Garcia is undefeated when heading into the biggest fight of his career. Since debuting as a professional in 2017, Garcia has won 16 fights, with ten by knockout. Most recently, he won a unanimous decision over Roger Gutierrez to claim the WBA World Super Featherweight title. Now Garcia is stepping up in the weight classes to attempt to become a three-division champion.
The Dominican Republic native will be hard-pressed to find an advantage over his vastly superior opposition. Garcia is taller than Davis, but their reaches are virtually identical. The main advantage Garcia holds is being underestimated – he’s not expected to win this one and has the potential to leverage that to pull off a surprise upset.
For those who are live streaming the match and looking to do some betting on boxing bouts, here are our two best predictions for Davis vs. Garcia this Saturday night:
The bottom line is Gervonta Davis should win this fight by knockout. It’s something he’s done in 93% of his boxing matches, having only failed to do so twice in the past decade.
For Davis, he’ll be motivated to start the year strong, ahead of a potential fight with Ryan Garcia later in the year. Having not been in the ring for nine months, Davis will want to remind the world what he’s capable of with a big knockout. For Garcia, he’s been competent across his career so far but is choosing a tough opponent to fight when stepping up the weight grades initially. Expect Garcia to be out of his depth and Davis to finish him by way of knockout for a 1.28 (2/7) return.
While betting on Davis to win by knockout to defend his WBA title may be a fairly safe bet, it’s not particularly lucrative. However, what is a lucrative bet is betting on which round grouping Davis will score his knockout in.
The highest odds for all of the four groupings available is betting on a Davis knockout to happen in Round 1-3. While the bookies believe this is the least likely time for Davis to score a knockout, since 2015, Davis has done it in six of his 14 knockouting wins. This means that Davis scores an early knockout 40% of the time – he did it three times in a row between 2018-2019. It’s been more than three years since Davis last scored an early knockout, which could either mean he’s lost his touch, or he’s overdue for another fast finish.
We say Davis is overdue for a fast finish and will end this one within three rounds for an 8.00 (7/1) return on those who take this bet.
Those who like taking a bit of a risk in their online betting on boxing bouts and may want to consider going against the bookies in this match, we’d suggest taking the following bet:
If Garcia does win this fight, his best chance is by surprising Davis. The longer he stays in the ring with Davis, the more his opponent will figure him out, wear him down, and score points on him. This reasons that if Garcia is to win, he’ll win early. While it’s unlikely, Garcia does still have ten knockouts to his name and is an undefeated fighter. Those who like a big return will love these odds – it’s essentially a chance to bet $100 and get a car or bet $1000 and get a house.
Boxing gets underway this weekend for 2023, with a title fight between Gervonta Davis and Hector Luis Garcia. The 31-year-old challenger Garcia will be hard-pressed not to end up on the canvas in this match, but may well surprise fans and pull out a win of his own. We say this will end early either way and most likely in favor of the champion. Tune in on Saturday night to find out, and don’t miss the chance to get €120 bonus for our readers exclusively.
