Ryan Garcia has Javier Fortuna in his sights but clearly another lightweight on his mind.

The unbeaten lightweight from Victorville, California promises to boast tunnel vision heading into his showdown with Dominican Republic’s Fortuna, which will headline a July 16 DAZN show from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Garcia hopes the win will set up a long-discussed clash with rising superstar Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (26-0, 24KOs).

“I expect something great will happen in this arena,” Garcia said of his upcoming fight at the home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and L.A. Clippers, and NHL’s L.A. Kings. “After [Fortuna], I’m gonna go after Tank. I want to beat his ass.”

A fight with Baltimore’s Davis was a hot button topic for much of the first quarter of 2021, only for Garcia (22-0, 18KOs) to get sidetracked by a more lucrative offer—a superfight with former eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao (62-8-2. 39KOs) that never panned out. Garcia wasted just enough time on chasing that unicorn to lose out on any realistic shot of facing Davis, who went on to score wins over Mario Barrios at 140 pounds and—in this very arena when it was still the famed Staples Center—Mexico City’s Isaac Cruz upon returning to lightweight.

Garcia was ringside for Davis’ most recent win, a sixth-round knockout of Las Vegas’ Rolando Romero in their May 28 grudge match at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Davis successfully defended his secondary WBA lightweight title for the third time, a development that cost Garcia $20,000 in a bet made with unified WBA/WBC/IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. (28-0, 22KOs).

Talk of a superfight between Davis and Garcia has once again made the rounds, coming at a time when a fight with Fortuna (37-3-1, 26KOs) has made its way back around for Garcia.

The clash was originally due to take place last July 9 at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles. Garcia withdrew from the event, citing a need for a mental health check which—along with a subsequent hand injury later in the year—left him with just one fight in 2021, a seventh-round knockout of Luke Campbell last January 2 in Dallas.

Fortuna was able to keep the July 9 date, though coming up short in a competitive but clear decision defeat to Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz. The 33-year-old Dominican southpaw has since picked up a first-round knockout of Rafael Hernandez this past February in Santo Domingo, D.R.

Garcia returned to the ring earlier this year, soundly outpointing Ghana’s Emmanuel Tagoe atop an April 9 DAZN show from Alamodome in San Antonio. After the fight, the 23-year-old rising star vowed to not name drop opponents. The promise didn’t last long, as he has been unable to avoid the temptation to discuss a pairing with Davis which many view as one of the biggest fights to be made in the sport in the foreseeable future.

“I don’t want to look past Fortuna too much, but that’s all I want,” Garcia said of a fight with Davis. “That’s all I see. The fans want it. I’m sure of that. I want it. He was screaming at me after the last fight that I’m next.

“Be a man of your word and let it be next. I don’t want to hear nothing else. I don’t want to hear about nobody else’s name. I care about Gervonta Davis, bring it on.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox