By Dan Ambrose: Ryan Garcia delivered the bad news on Monday saying that he WON’T be fighting former three-division world champion Jorge Linares (47-5, 29 KOs) next due to the travel ban. Linares is in Japan, and Garcia is planning on fighting on July 4th. Whether he fights on that date is unknown.
This would be an event that would need to be staged behind closed doors, and those are not easy to put together. Ryan’s promoters at Golden Boy haven’t given any updates on the status of July 4 card, leaving fans wondering if it will still be taking place.
Linares, 34, says he doesn’t believe that Ryan Garcia will be fighting on the fourth of July because there’s not enough time. The gyms are closed, and he doubts Ryan is going to be ready to fight by that time. Indeed, on social media,
Ryan is training at his home. On top of that, the 21-year-old Ryan Garcia doesn’t have an opponent.
Linares fight NOT happening
“I was just trying to get that fight made with Linares. Obviously, it didn’t happen because of the travel restrictions. I don’t know how it is in Japan right now, but that’s the word I got,” said Ryan Garcia to Golden Boy Promotions. “But it’s not going to happen. He’s in Japan.”
This isn’t all that unexpected that the fight between Linares and Ryan isn’t happening. If it happens later this or 2021, fans will know that Ryan Garcia wasn’t being protected by his promoter.
There’s nothing wrong with Golden Boy not putting this fight together right now. It’s early in Ryan’s career for him to be fighting a talented fighter with the experience that Linares has going for him. If Ryan were to lose this fight, it would be a big setback.
If he learned from the fight the way Canelo Alvarez learned from his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, then that’s one thing. Ryan might not learn, and he would have a potentially devastating loss on his record that could make it hard for him to come back from.
Ryan Garcia wants Linares to pass the torch
“He calls me a kid, but to me that’s childish,” Ryan Garcia said about Linares. “It’s my time. There’s a time to pass the torch. He barely had the torch.
“He did a lot, but I’m just saying, pass that torch now, I’m trying to fight. It didn’t happen. They love to disrespect, but we’ll see what happens in the ring,” said Ryan.
It’ll be interesting to see if Golden Boy Promotions revisit this fight in 2021 and attempt to put it together. Linares is a talented fighter, and Ryan might not ready for this type of guy.
Golden Boy has been matching Ryan against C-level fighters and looks good against them. Linares is a solid B-level guy, who beat Luke Campbell and gave Vasiliy Lomachenko a lot of problems in their fight in 2018.
There’s no torch to past from Linares and Ryan Garcia. Linares isn’t a world champion right now, and he’s lost five times in his career.
The fighter that Ryan should be going after to take the torch from is WBA/WBC/WBO lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Linares: Ryan Garcia hasn’t won anything
“They don’t want to fight me. They’re talking, talking, and talking,” said Linares to Fino Boxing. “Ryan Garcia says I’m old. Okay, I’m old. Make the fight. It’s easy for you.
“Make the fight. With who is he fighting? Does he have a WBC world champion? He doesn’t have anything. He only has six million followers on Instagram. Only that,” said Linares.
We really don’t know whether Golden Boy Promotions would have made the fight between Ryan and Linares, even if there wasn’t a travel restriction in place.
We’ve been hearing lately that Ryan Garcia’s trainer Eddy Reynoso didn’t want him to fight any of the talented fighters at lightweight. He wanted him to get more experience before he faces a good fighter. For that reason, it doesn’t seem all that strange for Ryan to all of a sudden make an announcement that he’s NOT fighting Linares next.
Golden Boy Promotions aren’t moving Ryan Garcia as fast as the promoters for Linares moved him down the early part of his career. Linares looked more technically ready at age 21 than what we’re seeing with Ryan, who’s game isn’t as complex. The management for Linares was able to move him fast because he knew how to fight, and he wasn’t one-dimensional on offense.
At 21, Linares still hasn’t fought for a world title, and we don’t know how well he’ll do when the time comes. Linares captured his first world title in 2007 at age 21 when he won the vacant WBC featherweight title in stopping Oscar Larios.
Ryan won’t be able to match that fete because his next fight in 2020 isn’t expected to be for a world title.
