By Adam Baskin: Bernard Hopkins says Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis’ decision to include a rehydration clause in the contract for his fight against Ryan Garcia is a sign of worry on his part for their 136-lb catchweight bout on April 22nd on Showtime PPV.
Tank had already gotten Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs) to agree to the fight taking place at 136 lbs rather than 140, but then he went one step further than adding a 10-lb rehydration clause to prevent Kingry from rehydrating fully overnight after the weigh-in.
Hopkins is an old school fighter, and he guys like Gervonta (28-0, 26 KOs); with his need for a catchweight and rehydration clause, it’s alien to B-Hop.
He can’t relate, but he fully understands that it’s a sign of deep worry on Tank’s and his management’s part. They don’t want to lose to Ryan, so they’ve set it up to where it’s going to be more difficult to get the victory than it otherwise would have been.
Tank-Ryan comes down to skills
“I don’t think anything comes down to one thing at this level. I think it’s going to be all of the above. I think both guys are going to show if they have it when it comes to toughness,” said Bernard Hopkins to Fighthype about the Ryan Garcia vs. Gervonta Davis fight.
“They both have it to get to where they are now, or they’re going to have it when they square up in weeks to come. I think they’re still going to show it. It’s going to come to who is going to be able to display it.
“One particular style isn’t going to be dominant in this fight. That’s going to be the difference between who wins this fight and who loses this fight. It’s who does something different that we haven’t talked about.
“We know about the punch, but let’s talk about the overall skills. We don’t like to talk about this because it’s boring to some people. When you run into fights of this magnitude and things that make history later, ‘We’ve never seen him do that before’ or ‘We never knew he could do that,’” said Hopkins.
Why does Gervonta need a rehydration clause?
“Those things that surprise the other, Ryan or Tank, will be the one difference between who wins and loses this fight,” said Bernard. “When you have a rehydration clause, it shows that Tank is worried under the disguise of, ‘I’m not worried.’
“When you make the weight, I look at it like, you made the damn weight. When you got to say, ‘I know you made the weight, but I want you to weigh this four hours later. You need to weigh this 24 hours later.’
“Now, it becomes something else. What advantages are you looking for? ‘Well, Bernard, fair game.’ Nah. Do you know what fair game is? ‘You get on the scale. We fight at 160 for my undisputed championship. I get on the scale, and we make that weight. That’s the weight that we agreed to.’
“But now for you to start saying, to make this fight happen, and I want to prove my greatness because I believe I’m already great. That’s what Tank is saying, really. This is the certified stamp of approval, and I won’t be worrying too much about how much you weigh.
“I just want you to weigh what we agreed up, and now we can go ahead and fight. I don’t want any excuses that you had to cut this weight, that you had to weigh this 24 hours.
You get another weigh-in to make sure you didn’t rehydrate up to whatever you rehydrate up to because, to me, the weight doesn’t make you better than me, and it doesn’t make you less better than me,” said Bernard.
Ryan Garcia dared to be great
“The weight means you’re going to be a fat Tank, big, and I’m going to beat you up even more,” said Hopkins. “That’s how I think. I’m old school. I believe when people see this interview, they’ll see that I’m not bashing one guy or another guy.
“I’m just telling you from a mental mind game, ‘I think I’m getting an advantage mentality of certain people that want the fight or are forced to answer the call. In this case, it’s the second one.
“To answer the call, I’m going to put all these incentives so you will say no to it, and then I can go somewhere else. So now when you have these things called concessions, and you’re not checking them off, saying, ‘I’m definitely not going to do that.’
“No one is interviewing on, ‘Ryan gave up a lot. He didn’t really have to give up. Why do you think he done that?’ He dared to be great. We talk it, and we might even fantasize about it, but how many people really mean it? Now, we’re going to see,” said Hopkins.
