Gervonta Davis knocks out Ryan Garcia with body shot in 7th

Gervonta Davis delivered a stunning body shot in the seventh round, causing Ryan Garcia to stumble back and then go to a knee, ending a highly anticipated bout with a knockout at 1:44.

Gervonta Davis' left uppercut to Ryan Garcia didn't seem to do much damage initially.

Garcia remained on his feet before backing up a few steps. Then he went to his right knee, and suddenly a highly anticipated boxing match was over, the lightweight bout ending at 1:44 of the seventh round on April 22 night.

“I didn’t think that body shot would end it, but I saw his facial expression and that’s what made me take it to him,” Davis said. “It was a good shot, for sure. I thought he was going to get up, but I like to play mind games, so when he was looking at me, I was looking at him trying to tell him, ‘Get up!’ He just shook his head, ‘No.’”

Davis improved to 29-0, with all but two of his victories by knockout. It was the first defeat for Garcia, who won 19 of his first 23 fights by KO.

Davis also sent Garcia to the mat with a roundhouse left in the second round, and spent most of the rest of the fight working the body. The strategy worked for Davis, a 28-year-old from Baltimore who put himself in position to succeed Canelo Alvarez as the face of the sport.

“I’m definitely the face of boxing,” Davis said.

Garcia, a 24-year-old who lives in Los Angeles, did manage to land two sharp rights to Davis' face in the sixth round. But then Tank Davis came back in the seventh with a left that put Garcia on the mat for the second time and prompted referee Thomas Taylor to call the bout.