If Gervonta Davis really did get iced in sparring, it wasn’t on the day Taylah Robertson was watching.

No, on that afternoon in a private, Las Vegas sweathouse … well, it was the tattooed American superstar who almost rendered his rival a white chalk outline.

Exactly who ‘Tank’ was brawling?

Doesn’t matter.

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“But it was wild,” recounts Robertson, Australia’s 24-year-old super flyweight, and likely Next Big Thing, who on this particular afternoon was watching proceedings from near enough to those ringsides seat that, come Sunday, will be worth $18,000 per chair.

Or would be, if any chairs were left.

But there aren’t

With not a ticket left to be bought, borrowed or bribed for Sunday’s lightweight blockbuster between Davis and fellow American star Ryan Garcia.

And believe us, Robertson tried.

“Even said I’d hold the spit bucket to get in,” she laughs, referencing what Oscar De La Hoya has described as the fight to save boxing.

A bout too, where somebody is most likely getting KTFO.

Which is exactly what both superstars promised at their final press conference Friday.

“I touch that jaw, you’re going to sleep, I promise you,” Tank fired at Garcia. “I’ll probably break your jaw. Facts.”

Soon after, he amped things up again, warning the undefeated Californian: “Don’t even bring your mother or your daughter. Don’t bring ‘em. I’m telling you.”

Not that Garcia seemed worried.

“I just need a single shot. Just one,” he fired back, with no prizes for guessing which ‘one’ it is, either.

“The left hook,” he confirmed. “When I touch anything, you’re going to sleep.

“I feel like I’m gonna break your jaw with a hook. I just see you on the floor with a broken jaw.”

All of which goes a long way to explaining why, for weeks now, the Full House sign has hung from the Las Vegas fight cauldron that is T-Mobile Arena.

Same as globally, Pay-Per-View subscriptions are trending large.

Again due in no small way to the notion that, when these two boxing superstars finally collide – boom – somebody is headed for the Land of Wind & Ghosts.

And for proof, just look at the numbers.

A startling set of figures which, combined, not only see these two men undefeated in 19 years and 51 fights, but boasting an incredible finish rate of 87 per cent.

Against 28 opponents, Tank has stopped all but two.

A chaotic run of finishes that’s seen the hyped Baltimore native – and fella dubbed the lighter weight’s Mike Tyson — cause said carnage via straights, lefts, hooks, rights, uppercuts, all of it.

“When Tank finds that opening,” Tim Tszyu told Fox Sports Australia this week, “yeah, it’s game over”.

Importantly though, Tszyu knows Garcia, while a $3 TAB outsider, is every inch a live dog in this fight, too.

Outstanding at throwing punches in bunches, Garcia also knows what it takes to drop men with body shots.

But his real weapon?

That left hook from hell.

Which is why Tszyu insists the Californian can cause an upset come Sunday.

“Especially if he weathers the storm,” says Australia’s super welterweight champ, who trained out of Garcia’s Los Angeles gym for almost six weeks last December.

“That, and control distance.

“First time we met too, I was really surprised by Garcia’s physical presence.

“He’s a big boy. Brings a real energy. A confidence.”

But is that enough to stop a Tank?

Maybe.

Especially if Garcia was on the money in recent days when, during a live chat where both men agreed to bet their entire purses, he revived a story suggesting, early in this camp, Davis was knocked cold in sparring.

“Didn’t you get knocked out by a Russian dude in Floyd’s gym?” Garcia fired. “They say you got knocked out cold”.

To which Tank simply replied: “No”.

But prove things either way?

That’s much harder to do.

Especially given whenever Tank spars, the shutters usually go up. Doors get locked.

Just ask Cherneka Johnson.

Australia’s IBF super bantamweight champ who, currently preparing in Las Vegas for her next title defence, has been working out of the city’s biggest gyms – including those run by Top Rank and Team Mayweather.

But as for seeing Tank spar?

“I’ve got to see him a few times in the gym,” she told us this week from her US base. “And he’s definitely zoned in. Seems to have his mind right in the game.

“But I haven’t got to watch him spar unfortunately.

“When I was there (on that occasion) we had to leave.

“The gym got closed down, there were security guards, everything.”

Yet good friend Robertson, another afternoon, stayed in.

One of those right place, right times for the young Queenslander who is herself on track to become the nation’s next bone fide champ.

A fighter who has only jetted home in recent days following an incredible six weeks where, moving between Las Vegas, New York, even Canada, she trained alongside Terence Crawford, ran mountains with Mikaela Mayer, even felled trees with Muhammad Ali’s grandson.

Somewhere among it all, won a fifth straight fight, too.

And alongside her almost every minute, close friend Johnson.

So as for how she wound up watching Tank? Assuming that vantage point which, come Sunday, will be worth almost 20 large?

“Coach Kay Koroma,” she says, referencing the popular US boxing coach who Robertson first met during her time as an aspiring amateur, and whose stable now include the likes of Mayer, Shakur Stevenson and Nico Ali Walsh.

As part of her pre-fight camp, both Robertson and Johnson worked with Coach Kay, which meant accessing private gyms alongside not only his own star client list, but also the likes of Crawford, Caleb Plant and, for several days, Davis.

“And whenever I saw Tank, he was so focused,” recounts the Aussie, a Davis fan for years.

“It’s actually hard to explain.

“But whenever he walked into the gym, he didn’t even look up at anyone.

“And in training, it was always head down, working.

“Just a completely different beast.”

And as for that sparring session?

“The guy was a monster,” she grinned. “I remember thinking (of his rival) ‘wow, somebody is about to get knocked out’.

“It’s definitely how I think he gets it done this weekend too.”

Same deal the likes of Canelo Alvarez, Floyd Mayweather and Australia’s George Kambosos.

Over in Las Vegas, Johnson will be cheering him too.

“Although I’ve really been on the fence,” she said of a showdown which will be shown live in Australia on Main Event. “But I’m a big fan of Tank, so I’m backing him for the win.”

Yet elsewhere across world boxing, there are plenty of heavyweight names going the other way in a conversation that has seen Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn change his pick no less than three times.

Speaking on IFL TV, Hearn said: “A lot of the people I’ve been speaking to, Devin (Haney), Shakur, all these people, they think Ryan has a really good chance in this fight.

“The fact that they grew up with him, the fact they know Tank, for them to think that, there must be substance to that, right?

“So, I started thinking that Ryan could win this fight by stoppage, and I actually would love to see that. I think that they are both tremendous fighters, but I’m going to go Tank by stoppage … I’ve just changed my mind again.”

He isn’t alone.

Take Sugar Shane Moseley, who says this one all comes down to Davis, a southpaw, that hook of Garcia and “whoever lands the left hand first”.

Others cheering the underdog, meanwhile, include Haney, Andy Ruiz Jnr and cult Aussie champ, Ebanie Bridges.

While as for Mike Tyson?

“You gotta think Tank,” he told US media recently.

But as for going 12 rounds?

“I don’t think so.”

And Floyd Mayweather?

Well, he reckons Tank.

Via KO.

“And when he hit that boy,” he said of Garcia, “he ain’t gonna wake up until next year”.