Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis dominated combat sports social media this week with the frenzied anticipation of a boxing matchup that’s been talked about for years by fans and pundits alike. Join us for a brief walk down Short-term Memory Lane as we look at some of the social media offerings this week’s violence-bringers have given us.
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A brief history
Fight Week is and has always been a roiling cauldron of emotional turmoil and drama, whether real or manufactured, often captured in photo or video form and dispersed through some social media outlet. Many moons ago, my dear friend Katie Winter had a column here called MMA On Instagram. It was a fun post, but we didn’t do a great job of keeping up with it after she left.
Katie would have loved that Aaron Pico has a horse or that Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis seemed willing to make an insane wager, but these days, she’s off exploring the world and living her best life. This revival-ish column is a toast to her and the athletes that we avidly watch.
Mission statement
The aim of the Fight Week Social Media Crawl is to take our readers on a Fight Week journey, told through the eyes of the athletes and/or their representatives, friends, family, etc. And it’s not limited to the UFC or even to MMA. The biggest events of the week are the target, be it boxing or sumo. Hell, we might even toss in some pro-wrestling for good measure.
This week, Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia are the talk of the proverbial town. All the clips, photos and over-quoted uplifting messages will be in one place. All the entertainment will be at your fingertips with none of the hassle of having to do the pesky legwork yourself. Admittedly, today’s post was cobbled together on the fly, as this brilliant revival idea didn’t actually occur to me until late yesterday, but across several events, I’ve managed to locate a solid batch of content to take you right into tonight’s sanctioned violence.
Bellator 294 & 295
We’ll start with Bellator MMA, who happen to have a double-header this weekend featuring back-to-back events on Friday and Saturday with Bellator 294 and 295. While Bellator 294 is flying well under the radar, their 295 card airing on Saturday night has a little more buzz around it. Here’s what crossed my radar before and after the news hit that the Horiguchi-Borg fight had been called off:
Patchy Mix talks camp & opponent
Raufeon Stots gets his day in Houston
Ilima-Lei Macfarlane’s toned tummy
If only Kyoji Horiguchi knew
DeAnna Bennett gets spicy on the mic
Bad news for Ray Borg
Aaron Pico’s pony
UFC Vegas 71
UFC Vegas 71 is a bit of a dud on paper, carrying in only one true ranked fight with the main event pairing of Curtis Blaydes and Sergei Pavlovich. The other fight of significance is the women’s featherweight matchup between Norma Dumont and Karol Rosa, however one would never know that by going to the UFC’s official athlete rankings, which very conspicuously features Amanda Nunes as the champion and nothing beyond that.
That’s right folks, there will be a fight between two women at featherweight—one of them ranked number 9 at bantamweight and the other ranked at number 13, also at bantamweight—despite there being no other women in the featherweight rankings outside the champion. But I digress. Let’s get back to the task at hand—getting you the goods.
Curtis Blaydes reposts a quote
Sergei Pavlovich’s world
Brad Tavares shares a highlight clip
Bobby Green shares a post-fight clip
Jared Gordon goes for a trim
Norma Dumont shares a block of photos
Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia
Finally, we get to the real meat and potatoes of the weekend, the boxing showdown between undefeated stars Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia. Which man will reign supreme this weekend? Did they actually bet their entire purses? Who knows, but you can weigh in on who you think has won the social media battle in the leadup to Saturday night’s highly anticipated pugilism right here in the comments.
Gervonta Davis wants his heart
Ryan Garcia taunts Tank
Ryan Garcia’s McGregor-Aldo comparison
Leonard Ellerbe’s weekend vibe
In case you missed it
Check out the 6th Round Post-fight Show
Not a boxing fan? Won’t be watching Gervonta Davis battle Ryan Garcia for all the glory? Well, you have options. Tonight, immediately following UFC Vegas 71, you can catch a live, video broadcast of the 6th Round Post-fight Show with Zane Simon and Eddie Mercado.
Come join the chat where June often has cookies and milk (on PPV nights, she might have pizza and beer), and interact with fellow fans and maybe get your question read and answered during the show. Join us, because come on, what else are you gonna do?
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