By Dan Ambrose: Lightweight contender Ryan Garcia says Saul Canelo Alvarez was impressed with his punching power in their recent sparring session to prepare for their respective opponents on November 2. Ryan says Canelo told him that he has heavy hands for a guy his size. Naturally, Canelo didn’t go full bore during the sparring session with the much lighter Garcia. That wouldn’t have been fair, as Canelo outweighs Garcia by over 40 pounds.
Garcia (18-0, 15 KOs) has been given the co-feature spot against #4 WBO Romero Duno on Canelo’s November 2 card at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada. Garcia and Duno (21-1, 16 KOs) are fighting for the vacant WBC silver lightweight title. The belt is less important than the ranking that the winner of the Garcia vs. Duno will be given by the World Boxing Council afterwards.
Canelo is challenging WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev for his strap in hopes of winning his 4th division world title.
The 21-year-old Garcia (18-0, 15 KOs) was in Santa Monica, California this week with a meet & greet with the fans as part of a new launch of his cologne collaboration with Abercrombie & Fitch.
Canelo impressed with Ryan Garcia’s power
“It was good work. The dude is big,” said Ryan Garcia to Fighthype in talking about sparring with Canelo Alvarez. “We were just trying to work on our moves. We weren’t hitting hard, and we were just trying to work on technique, fakes, counters, but weren’t doing much. He said I hit hard for my size, and he said he can feel my punch. Even though I didn’t hit him my hardest, he said I have a heavy hand,” said Garcia.
Garcia has a tough opponent in lightweight contender Duno to take on next week. Duno, 24, isn’t the most talented guy in the division, but he’s relentless, and he’ll be a good test for Garcia. Golden Boy Promotions recently gave Ryan an extension on his contract with them. They’ll be able to see if this was a wise move when Garcia gets in there with Duno, because this is someone he needs to dominate. Duno lost a lopsided eight round decision to Mikhail Alexeev (12-1, 4 KOs) in May 2016. Since that fight, Duno has reeled off 12 consecutive victories, albeit against poor opposition.
Once WBA/WBC [Franchise]/WBO lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko vacates his titles, Garcia can go after one of them. It would be wise for Garcia to stay away from Gervonta Davis, Haney and Teofimo Lopez.
Ryan Garcia predicts Canelo knockout over Kovalev
“I feel like he’s going to knockout Kovalev, either body or face, either or,” said Garcia in predicting a stoppage win for Canelo. “I’m really excited to see what we both do on a big night. November 2nd is a huge night. I’m just excited for the fans to see something amazing happen. The MGM in Las Vegas, there’s nothing better than that to fight,” said Garcia.
It’s going to be difficult for Canelo to knockout Kovalev unless he’s willing to get in the trenches with him. Kovalev has only been stopped once in his career, and that was his infamous low blow defeat at the hands of Andre Ward in 2017. From that fight, Kovalev got an unfair reputation for being unable to handle body shots.
In looking at the fight in slow motion, Ward landed three low blows in a row that led to the stoppage. It looked like the referee made a poor decision in stopping the fight rather than penalizing Ward and giving Kovalev five minute to recover. Canelo hasn’t knocked out any of the elite level guys he’s faced recently in Gennadiy Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs. He didn’t even stop Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
The knockout wins Canelo has recorded in the last seven years have come against these flawed fighters:
- Amir Khan
- Rocky Fielding
- Liam Smith
- James Kirkland
- Alfredo Angulo
- Josesito Lopez
Canelo’s not a knockout puncher unless he’s facing lesser guys. The above mentioned fighters on Canelo’s resume are not elite level fighters.
Ryan Garcia: Romero Duno won’t be able to keep from getting hit
“I just listened to my body in however I felt,” said Ryan about his training camp for his fight on November 2 against Romero Duno. “And I didn’t work too hard or push too little. I feel the best I’ve ever felt. This camp was great. I expect him to come with his A-game. He has nothing to lose, and he’s going to come with everything he’s got. But I’ve got something for him no matter if he throws 1000 punches, man. No matter what shape he comes, he cannot beat me. I’ll show everybody that. I don’t care how conditioned he is, and I don’t care how strong he is. And I don’t care about anything.
“Nothing is going to stop him from getting hit. I’m prepared to go 12 rounds. I hope he’s prepared, because his last fight, he looked tired. Wherever this Memo guy is, I really don’t care, because I don’t him. Regardless of what people are saying, they just don’t know s—. Some people just speak just to say something.
“They’re trying to be negative in the world. I’m all about being positive. And I’m going to be myself regardless of what people say. I’m going to be coming November 2nd. And I’m going to be getting my respect in the boxing ring. So I’m ready to do it,” said Garcia.
It’s reasonable to assume that Ryan will have little problems defeating Duno. After all, this is a guy with a padded record, who has fought only decent opponent during his career in Mikhail Alexeev. But that doesn’t mean that a victory over Duno will translate into Garcia being good enough to defeat WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney.
Ryan isn’t that kind of talent, and Golden Boy will need to be careful in who they match him with. If they try and put Garcia in with Haney after the Duno fight, it could end badly for him. Garcia is someone that Golden Boy needs to crafty with, because it would be a mistake to put him in with a talented guy like Haney.
