Gervonta Davis paused for a moment before picking the best opponent he has ever faced.

The Baltimore banger has barely put a foot wrong during his unblemished 30-0 career so choosing the boxer who gave him the toughest test is no easy task.

The consensus pick among fans would be Isaac Cruz, who pushed Davis all the way to the final bell in December 2021.

But after pondering the question for a few seconds, Davis chose Ryan Garcia.

Speaking in the immediate aftermath of his seventh-round stoppage victory over ‘King Ry’ last year, he said: “I’d say he’s the best fighter.

Definitely, we was going off each other energy in there.

“We was actually talking in there. You know what I mean? It was fun.

“It was fun while it lasted. You know what I mean? I enjoyed every moment of it.”

Davis’ pick may come as somewhat of a surprise considering the manner in which he dealt with his rival.

Garcia had his moments but he eventually succumbed to a sickening body shot knockout after falling behind on all three judges scorecards.

“I just felt like I was like a step, a level above him,” Davis added.

“You know what I mean? So, everything he was doing in the ring, I was already aware of everything.

“I was already aware a couple steps before he did it.

“So, I was mostly calm and just let him make his mistakes and I just, you know, yeah, I countered off his mistakes.”

After beating Garcia, Davis spent 44 days in prison for violating the terms of a sentence, which initially saw him avoid jail time.

In May last year, Davis was sentenced to 90 days of home detention, three years probation, and 200 hours of community service over his November 2020 hit-and-run car crash which injured four people.

‘Tank’ was later found guilty of violating the terms of his home detention by trying to serve the home detention order at the Four Seasons Hotel and a $3.4million penthouse, rather than trainer Calvin Ford’s house as the judge initially agreed.

As a result, he was ordered to serve the rest of his 90-day sentence in jail.

After his release, Davis returned to the ring against Frank Martin in June 2024 – a fight he won via eighth-round KO.

Consequently, Martin couldn’t be considered in Davis’ ‘toughest opponent’ debate, although he was far more complimentary about Garcia’s abilities than ‘The Ghost’s’.

Can Gervonta Davis close the distance and land significantly on the defensively elite Shakur Stevenson? That’s the question that one of the best fights in boxing boils down to.

‘Tank’ Davis has stopped 28 out of 30 opponents. At the other end of the scale, Stevenson has a less than 50% knockout ratio but wins bouts comfortably over the distance.

Both men are undefeated and currently hold world titles in the lightweight division. Together, they are two halves of one of the most difficult to call match-ups in the sport.

Asked by Fight Hub TV to predict how a tournament would turn out with all the best 135 and 140 pounders – Davis, Stevenson, Devin Haney, Subriel Matias, Teofimo Lopez, Ryan Garcia – former trainer to Gennady Golovkin, Abel Sanchez, said Davis beats them all.

“Matias and Gervonta are in the final … Shakur doesn’t have the pop that Davis has. He doesn’t have the pop that Matias has.

I think [Tank is the best of them all.] I think that [Tank] has what I would love to have in all my fighters, he’s got a [Roberto] Duran rage in my opinion. None of these [other] guys have that. Yes, he’s a little short, but when you’ve got that Duran rage, he wants to hurt you … The other guys, they don’t have that rage and I think that’s very important in a fighter.

Unfortunately for fans, the fight is set to marinate longer. Despite both recently coming off title defences in the same period and looking for opponents, talks failed to materialised and Stevenson, now signed with Matchroom, will face former super-featherweight world champion Joe Cordina on October 12.

His team want to get that win before facing William Zepeda and then Davis, who is slated for a November return with an opponent as yet unannounced.