By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions boss Oscar De La Hoya won’t stand in the way to block a fight between Ryan Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) and WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney (24-0, 15 KOs).
Ryan has talked of wanting to fight WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank Davis. We’ll have to see which direction Golden Boy steers him in. It’s arguably a more significant risk for Ryan to take on a tough guy like Tank Davis so soon in his career. That might be one of the reasons why Golden Boy CEO De La Hoya is talking about Haney. There’s less risk for Ryan.
Ryan Garcia could be waiting until 2022
De La Hoya will let the 21-year-old ‘Kingry’ Garcia challenge Haney for his WBC 135-pound strap when Ryan is made the WBC mandatory challenger.
That could take a little while before Ryan is made the mandatory to Haney. As of now, Ryan is ranked #3 with the World Boxing Council. The WBC recently ordered #1 Javier Fortuna and #2 Luke Campbell to fight for the mandatory spot and interim WBC title.
As long as boxing returns this year, we’ll see Campbell and Fortuna battle for the mandatory spot. The winner of that fight will face Haney in the first half of 2021. Haney will then fight the winner in either the summer or fall of next year.
At best, Ryan will get a title shot against Haney in 2022, which will work out perfectly with his trainer Eddy Reynoso. He wants Ryan to take his time and get more experience before he challenges for a world title.
De La Hoya won’t stop Ryan Garcia
“Why not? Let’s do it,” said De La Hoya to The Ring Digital when asked if he’ll let Ryan Garcia face WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney. “What people don’t understand is I was a fighter first, and now I’m a promoter. I still have the mentality of a fighter.
“Let’s bring it on, dude. Let’s fight everybody. You’re going to fight him anyway, so let’s just do it now. Why not? If you’re ready as a young fighter, and you’re confident to go up against anybody, let’s do it.
“Why not? That’s what people want to see, the young against the young, the now against the now. So I’m all for it,” said De La Hoya of a fight between Haney and Ryan Garcia.
De La Hoya is saying he’s all for letting King Ryan take on Haney, but we’ll see what happens when he does become his mandatory. It won’t be surprised if Ryan is still waiting for a world title shot in 2022, especially if he fails to impress or if he loses to Jorge Linares or Luke Campbell.
Reynoso wants Ryan to get more seasoning before he challenges for a world title, but he may not like what he finds out about him along the way. The warning signs are already there that Ryan isn’t the fighter that some boxing fans think he is.
Reynoso has a lot of work to do
We saw in Ryan’s fight with Carlos Morales in 2018 that he struggles badly when his opponents can time his left hook and nail him with right hands. Morales fought Garcia to a standstill in that fight, and the only thing he did was take his left hook.
Reynoso has a lot of work that he needs to do with Ryan before he faces Haney, Tank Davis, or Linares. Those guys are more seasoned professionals than him, and they’ve got more tools in their arsenal. They don’t depend on one punch to win their fights the way Ryan does.
Putting Ryan in with Linares this year could be a disaster if Reynoso doesn’t improve his game beforehand. Linares has been around for a long time, and his game is more complicated. He doesn’t sit back looking to land his left hook 100% of the time as Ryan does, and he doesn’t straight up in the air the way he does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIzbzK-td2A&t=5s