By Jeff Aronow: Ryan Garcia will have a 50-50 shot at beating former three-division world champion Jorge Linares (47-5, 29 KOs) when the two of them meet up, according to super featherweight champion Joseph Diaz Jr.
He says that despite the 34-year-old Linares’ age, he still has enough talent to give the young 21-year-old Ryan something to think about in this fight.
Although Diaz doesn’t want to predict the fight, he appears to be leaning in the direction of the young Ryan due to these concerns about Linares’ heart. Diaz believes that Linares gave up when the going got tough in his five career defeats.
All five of Linares’ career losses came by knockout to these fighters:
- Juan Carlos Salgado – TKO 1
- Pablo Cesar Cano – TKO 1
- Sergio Thompson – TKO 2
- Antonio DeMarco – TKO 11
- Vasiliy Lomachenko – TKO 10
It didn’t look like Linares quit in any of those fights. He lost because he was hurt and couldn’t continue even if he wanted to. Linares’ fight with Thompson wast stopped on a cut. As far as the rest of the fights, Linares was severely hurt by shots, and he was staggering at the time the fights were halted.
Ryan Garcia vs. Jorge Linares toss-up fight
“A lot of people are saying that Ryan is knocking out nobodies, but he’s building up the hype,” said Diaz Jr. to Fighthub on Ryan Garcia’s fight against Linares. “I’m excited at seeing him fight a guy as tough as Jorge Linares to see what he’s all about because Jorge Linares is no joke either, man.
“He isn’t no chump. If you’re putting it in Ryan Garcia’s eyes, they think they have a chance of knocking out Jorge Linares because of the speed that he has, elusiveness, and the range that he has to try and get out. He’s f**** very slick too, man.
“He comes and lands some shots where you don’t even see them coming. It’s going to be a good learning experience for Ryan Garcia, and I think it’s a 50-50 fight.
“Jorge Linares does have all that experience inside the ring. He’s fought all these top contenders and lite fighters already, and Ryan Garcia is up and making a name for himself,” said Diaz
What could give Ryan problems is Linares’ power jab, and his ability to throw single shots with excellent hand speed. Ryan Garcia uses his left hook as his main weapon to win his fights. He likes to wait for his opponents to throw a shot, and then he counters them with his left hook.
Ryan’s game is similar to Canelo Alvarez’s, with him waiting on the left hook all the time. Linares will make sure that he doesn’t give Ryan many opportunities to land his left, and that could keep his offense bottled up.
Linares is a step up for Ryan
“He is the younger guy, but Jorge Linares has a lot of knowledge and experience inside the ring,” continued Diaz. “Yeah, he’s older, and yeah, he has a lot of losses, and he’s been knocked out, but he’s still bringing a lot of experience inside the ring for Ryan Garcia.
“So that’s a good step up for Ryan Garcia. I know both of the guys, so I’m not going to choose who’s going to win that fight. I’m just going to hope the best man wins that night.
“I don’t think he’s washed up, and I don’t know what it is about Jorge Linares. He does have a couple of losses because he got knocked out. He’s a beast, but when he gets hit, he probably doesn’t want to continue He probably thinks about his future and wants to make sure that his health is OK because I don’t know,” said Diaz.
Linares is a considerable step up for Ryan Garcia from the guys that his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions have been matching him up with. Only recently has Golden Boy put Ryan in with contenders, and they’ve been more fringe level guys at best. Technically, Romero Duno had a high ranking, but he’d done zero to deserve the high order he’d been given
Ryan’s recent wins:
- Franciso Fonseca
- Romero Duno
- Jose Lopez
- Braulio Rodriguez
Those are world champion level fighters like Linares is, and it’s evident that Golden Boy has matched Ryan against guys that weren’t a real threat to beating him.
Linares IS a severe threat to defeating Ryan, and that might be the main reason why his father/trainer Henry Garcia is seemingly having second thoughts about him facing him.
Diaz questions Linare’ heart
“The only thing bad about Jorge Linares is he lacks a little bit of heart; I feel like he doesn’t have the heart where when the going gets tough and he gets knocked down,” said Diaz.
“Instead of getting back up and continuing to do it, he’s like f*** it, I’m hurt. I’m not going to do it. It’s over.’ That’s cool for him, but I don’t think he’s washed up either.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a slaughter for Ryan Garcia. I believe that Ryan has got to take him very, very seriously, and know that this is a step up fight and that this is a massive fight for him in his career.
“He has to be at his best mentally and physically going into that fight because Jorge Linares knows he’s still young, and he knows that Ryan Garcia is the type of guy that is going to bring in a lot of viewers and a lot of money.
“So if he beats Ryan Garcia, the more power is going to be towards Jorge Linares. That’s going to make Jorge Linares motivated to be victorious. So it’s a 50-50 fight because I can see how the hunger for both of these guys is going to be going into this fight,” said Diaz.
Diaz may be guessing when it comes to Linares’ past fights because if he’d seen the instances where he lost, he wouldn’t be questioning his heart. With that said, Diaz would be in the right to question Linares’ chin, as he was hurt in each of his past defendants.
It wasn’t heart that led to Linares losing five times in the past. He met up with guys that had excellent power, and he couldn’t handle it.
