By Jim Dower: Ryan Garcia weighed in a 134.4 pounds on Friday afternoon for his 10 round fight against Carlos Morales (17-2-3, 6 KOs) this Saturday night. Morales weighed in at 134.2 pounds.
(Photo credit: Tom Hogan-Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions)
Garcia-Morales will face each other at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. Garcia is battling the 28-year-old Morales on Saturday night, but the guy that he wants is Gervonta’ Tank’ Davis. Garcia wants Davis, but he’s not going to be given the chance by Golden Boy as of yet. They’re going to continue to have Garcia taking baby steps until they feel he’s ready for that step up.
Garcia (15-0, 13 KOs) puts his unbeaten record on the line against the veteran Morales for a fight that will be streamed live on Facebook Watch in the United States and around the globe on Golden Boy Fight Night Page. This is a fight that will get the 20-year-old Garcia a lot of publicity if his 1.1 million Instagram followers take the time to watch him.
This isn’t the opponent that the highly popular Garcia wants to fight. Garcia is facing Morales because that’s who his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions want him to fight. Garcia has bigger ambitions. He wants to challenge WBA super featherweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis to take his title. Garcia sees Davis as a winnable fight for him.
Garcia’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya wants to put him on the undercard of Saul Canelo Alvarez’s December card. Canelo is fighting on September 15 against IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo wants to fight in December to make up for his lost May 5 date earlier this year when he was suspended. It’s unclear whether Canelo will fight in December if he’s beaten by Golovkin on September 15 or if he gets hurt in winning. Certainly a knockout loss for Canelo would result in him taking the rest of 2018 off, as it would be a bad idea for him to get back inside the ring so soon after that. Garcia will be kept busy by Golden Boy regardless.
“We have a big event that we’re gunning for in December in Las Vegas or in New York, and he would be on that,” De La Hoya said to ESPN.com.
Fighting on Canelo’s December card will give Garcia a great deal of attention from boxing fans. It would be even better if Golden Boy matches Garcia with an opponent that the hardcore and casual fans have heard of. It would mean a lot more for the boxing public if Ryan Garcia is matched against someone credible.
“I’ve talked to Oscar about it,” Ryan Garcia said to ESPN.com. “We’re going to take our time, but I’m the type of person who wants it all right now. I need that title right now. I want to fight [titlist] Gervonta [Davis] right now. People have to hold me back. I just love challenges. Everybody wait up and see. Everybody say what they want. My time will come.”
Garcia is where Davis was at three years ago in facing lesser opposition. In 2015, the then 20-year-old Davis was fighting journeymen level opposition like Luis Sanchez, Cristobal Cruz, Recky Dulay, Alberto Mora and Israel Suarez. It wasn’t until Davis was 22-years-old in 2017 that he was finally allowed to step it up against the top guys. If Golden Boy Promotions follows the same schedule as Mayweather
Promotions did with Davis, then we won’t see Garcia fight for a world title until 2020. Garcia will be 22-years-old and he’ll have a better chance of success than he would if he fought for a world title right now.
Garcia is a star in the making. Even though he’s fighting in a weight division that isn’t traditionally one that is widely followed by boxing fans, Garcia is on pace to surpass the highly popular Canelo Alvarez in the near future. Garcia is arguably well ahead of the popularity that Canelo had earlier in his career. Garcia can become a superstar in no time if he can keep winning and if he’s able to beat the best in the super featherweight and lightweight divisions.
Carlos Morales is the token lamb that is being brought in for Garcia to slaughter on Saturday night in front of the fans. Morales is a good fighter, but he’s not done anything during his career that suggests that he has any real chance of winning this fight.