Gervonta Davis enjoyed a seventh-round TKO win over Ryan Garcia after a body shot downed the latter who couldn't make the referee's subsequent 10-count.
It was massive and rare super fight between two fighters in their primes that drew the attention of the mainstream media and casual fans worldwide.
Having said that, there may have been some wondering why Garcia wasn't able to get up from a shot to the body and even more wondering why such a shot caused him to have a lack of breath.
“I couldn't breathe,” Garcia said after the fight (via ESPN). “I was going to get back up, but I just couldn't get up. … He just caught me with a good shot. I don't want to make no excuses in here. … I just couldn't recover. … He caught me with a good body shot, snuck under me and caught me good.”
The reason Garcia was out of breath was because body shots — particularly fight-impacting ones — are actually shots that greatly impact the liver.
Looked everywhere for this angle. Brutal body shot.pic.twitter.com/mIjyGzk0tI
— Olu (@Onemola) April 23, 2023
According to Dr. Brian Sutterer, an effective liver shot can activate the parasympathetic nervous system and its key nerve in the vagus nerve which starts near the brain stem and runs through the chest activity.
Once activated, a shock is sent through the entire body, affecting one's blood pressure, heart rate and more and essentially causing a physiological shut down of the body.
While the pain will initially come from the rib cage and liver area being damaged, the real shutdown occurs once the electrical signals are sent up through the parasympathetics one or two seconds later.
This is why Ryan Garcia and many other fighters who succumb to liver shots always have a delayed reaction — and why despite seemingly wanting to get back up to his feet, Garcia's body refused to cooperate.
Fighters who are orthodox (right-handed) are even more susceptible to them when facing southpaws (left-handed fighters) and that was the case for Garcia against the southpaw Davis.
Essentially, no matter how tough you are, an effective body shot will put any person on the planet to the ground.
Garcia should know better than most, as his win over Luke Campbell in 2021, was also a result of a seventh-round body shot.
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