Ryan Garcia: ‘WATCH what I do to Jorge Linares’

By Boxing News - 02/15/2020 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Ryan Garcia spent a good portion of his post-fight news conference last Friday night discussing his next fight against Jorge Linares in July. It’s the next test or the 21-year-old Garcia in facing the talented former three division world champion Linares, who wiped out his past opponent Carlos Morales (19-5-4, 8 KOs) in 4 rounds last night.

After making light work of former 2 time-world title challenger Francisco Fonseca (25-3-2, 19 KOs) on DAZN in stopping him in round 1 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) met with the media to look ahead to his fight against former three division world champion Linares (47-5, 29 KOs).

Garcia, 21, says he’s going to knockout Linares. Ryan reminded the media that Linares, 34, was knocked out in the first round by light welterweight contender Pablo Cesar Cano when he moved up in weight last year in January 2019. Garcia says that if he lands the same shots that Cano did against Linares, he’ll knock him out as well. Cano (33-7-1, 23 KOs) knocked Linares down three times before their fight was stopped in the 1st round.

Linares will be knocked out says Ryan

“I can’t have a bad performance or an OK fight, because they’re all watching, so I have to put in the work,” said Garcia. “I would be disrespecting myself. So when I come in, this mother-f— better be a beast. You better be a monster, somebody that has been grinding day in and day out. I got one shot.

“I’m not playing around. I want to build a legacy,” said Ryan. “I want to shock the world, and that’s why I want to go right after Linares. He had a good performance. He knocked him out. Watch what I do to him. I already told my 2020 [prediction] last year. Let’s get somebody at the beginning of the year, then let’s get Linares, then Campbell, and then Gervonta Davis.

“He [Linares] was getting touched up a little bit, he had more experience, and he set him up and knocked him out,” said Ryan. “But let me tell you. If I hit him [Linares] with those same shots…If [Pablo Cesar] Cano knocked him out, trust me, I’m going to knock him out. It’s [Linares fight] is going to happen,” said Garcia.

The Linares fight is definitely going to happen. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya confirmed that Ryan will be facing Linares in July at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. De La Hoya has already booked the venue ahead of time for the fight.

Pablo Cano is a big guy, and looked like a full welterweight on the night that Linares fought him last year. In hindsight, it was a foolish blunder on Linares’ part to take on a big light welterweight with huge punching power like Cano in his first fight at 140.

Ryan Garcia: I’m going to BREAK Linares’ soul

“I guarantee what everybody is going to say. ‘Oh, Ryan isn’t ready, he isn’t experienced enough, and we don’t know what he got. He only got power.’ Watch what I do to him. He can even hit me with some s—. I’m so conditioned that once I break him, I’m going to break his soul. I promise you.

“I’m going to come at him, and keep taking it to him,” continued Garcia about Linares. “He ain’t going to keep up with my timing, because I’m on him like a motor. I’m a Ferrari, and he’s an old Ferrari. I’m like a new Ferrari. My s— is rolling. Bang!” said Garcia about his fight with Linares in May.

Well, if Garcia loses to Linares, it won’t be the end of the world. Garcia talked a lot about how he wants to improve with every fight. If the more experienced Linares takes advantage of the flaws in Garcia’s game, then he’s always rebuild, and come back stronger.

It doesn’t help though that Ryan is already set a retirement age for him at 26. That’s not good. You’d like to think that Ryan will be around a little longer than that in case things don’t work out well for his next three fights.

Ryan wants to fight Linares, Luke Campbell and Gervonta Davis in his next three matches. What happens if Garcia loses all three of those fights? It could take him years to fix all the weaknesses in his game that those guys expose.

“I’ve already reserved the Staples Center for July. It’s a clash of the titans,” said De La Hoya about the Ryan vs. Linares fight.

Hopkins: Ryan will move passed Linares once he beats him

“Linares is a three division world champion, and he’s been there,” said Bernard Hopkins. “For Ryan to want to take him on and put what he has on the line, it proves that he’s not only at the level that he’s earned, he’ll be at the level passed Linares once he beats him.

“That’s a huge statement based on what Linares showed, that he’s still got life, he’s still relevant, and that fight is going to happen. Then everybody else is going to be right there,” said Hopkins.

“That might be close to double after tonight,” said Hopkins about Ryan Garcia’s Twitter followers. “You can’t help but to gain fans and not lose fans, because even your haters got to respect, because they’re going to want to see the opposite more, and hopefully they’ll be able to see and celebrate.

“But that’s how you not only make a living but a legacy off of those types of mindset, because once you believe everybody out there is rooting for you, you become comfortable,” said Hopkins about the haters Ryan Garcia will have.

It won’t be a huge statement if Garcia beats Linares. Given Linares’ age, chin problem, and the fact that he was recently knocked out, it wouldn’t be a big statement for Ryan to beat him.

The same goes for Luke Campbell. He’s vulnerable too. But it would be a big deal if Garcia defeats Tank Davis. That would be a huge win for Ryan, especially if he knocks Tank out early like he did with Fonseca.

Fonseca couldn’t handle what I had for him – Ryan Garcia

“I got to assess it and see what I can work on, but I know the things that I got to work on,” said Ryan at the post-fight news conference. “I’m in the gym, and I spar a lot. I know what I got to work on. In this fight, Fonseca didn’t handle what I had for him, but I know the things I got to work on. But I’m going to work on it until I perfect it so much.

“Even if I perfect it, I’m going to keep working on it and pushing the edge,” said Ryan. “I want to get this all done by 26. 10,000 people came out. I was terrified, because I don’t want to put anybody in the hospital for a month or worse,” said Garcia about his thoughts on his 1st round knockout of Fonseca.

“I just want to do this for the love of the game. It’s all for the love of boxing. I’m not trying to kill nobody. I’m just trying to do my stuff, they’re OK, and go back to their families. That’s all I want, because I would want that for myself,” said Ryan.

Tank Davis’ 8th round knockout of Fonseca wasn’t as impressive as Ryan’s stoppage win, but that doesn’t mean that he’s less powerful. Ryan stopped Fonseca by hitting him with a shot that he didn’t see coming due to the speed that he threw the punch with. The punches that Tank Davis stopped Fonseca with were huge George Foreman-like sledgehammer blows.

Devin Haney needs to PROVE himself – Ryan Garcia

“He’s got a lot of catching up to do,” said Garcia about Haney. “I know he’s a champ, but I told him to his face, ‘If you’re a champ, then I’m a champ, because you haven’t done anything to make me think you’re a champ. You’ve got to prove it to me like I’m proving to everybody else. You’ve got to get into the grind like me.’

“I want him to be great, because he was great in the amateurs just like me,” said Ryan about Haney. “So it’s like, who is really going to put in that sacrifice, and that’s why I want him to reach some greatness. He didn’t have a great performance in his last fight. I want him to come back and have a great one, because I want to fight somebody just as great as me with the same mindset, so I can test myself.

‘This didn’t go my way, but I’m going to figure some s—- out,'” said Garcia about Haney. “He put himself on the limb by saying I would beat all these guys,” said Ryan about Hopkins. “They said, ‘Bernard, you’re crazy, and this and that.’ That’s why I respect him, because he’s really seen my vision,” said Ryan.

Haney will likely fight twice more this year, as long as his shoulder problem has been cleared up. He’s not going to fight the winner of the Campbell vs. Javier Fortuna fight right away when he returns in July. It’ll likely be one of the contenders. If Ryan is going to insist that Haney beat a top name before he faces him, then it could take longer before the two of them fight.

10,300 fans showed up for Garcia vs. Fonseca

“You become complacent, and you become automatic,” said Hopkins. “He’ll be back in the gym working on those things that he could have done in a minute and a half [against Fonseca]. The mindset that he and his coach have is, he’ll see something in that minute and a half that he didn’t do,” said Hopkins.

“10,300 people [showed up for the fight]. Not only on Friday, but on Valentine’s Day Friday. That means you had to convince her or whoever to come to a fight on Valentine’s Day in LA in traffic,” said Hopkins on the fan attendance for Garcia-Fonseca fight.

“Even in his [Haney] performance in his last fight, if he was thinking. Again, this is a young man [Ryan] with an old soul ‘I’m going to see you at the end, but let me clear this up, and then I’ll see you at the end.’

“To me, that’s like, wait a minute. You want him [Haney] to know, ‘I’ll save you for last, because we got a little bit of amateur history.’ That’s what he meant,” said Hopkins on Ryan telling Haney he has to wait for 3 more fights before he faces him. “That to me is a build up,” said Hopkins

10,300 is a big crowd for a guy with only 20 fights as a pro like Ryan. He’s got the fans backing him already. Now all he needs is for him to start facing the elite level fighters so he can show how good he is, and then from there he might need to move up to 140. The 135-lb division doesn’t have big names aside from Tank Davis, Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez.

Ryan Garcia will need to deal with adversity – Hopkins

“You continue to do what you got to do, and hopefully you look better than you did in your last fight, because you can get a knockout in 10 seconds,” said Hopkins. “We have Ryan in a minute and forty. Play that type of game, but a serious game. That’s not only doing our job of making it easier. Now come together you now have something that’s talked about in that weight division that hasn’t been talked about for awhile.

“We need that in every division, as far as I’m concerned,” said Hopkins about Ryan creating interest in a fight between him and Haney. “Tonight was a statement, as far as I’m concerned. His ethics and work. It’s how far Ryan wants to go. There’s going to be some struggles, and there’s going to be some adversity.

“I think for Ryan to become pound-for-pound champion, he’s going to have to deal with adversity even in victory,” said Hopkins.

Once Ryan gets in with Tank Davis, he’ll be dealing with plenty of adversity. That’s a fight that will show whether Ryan is as good as he thinks he is.

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