By Jim Maltzman: Ryan Garcia doesn’t like what promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr. is doing in training Gervonta Davis‘ rival Devin Haney, who isn’t one of his fighters in his stable.
Mayweather promotes WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Tank Davis (23-0, 22 KOs), and it looks strange that he’s training his rival, WBC 135–pound champion Haney (24-0, 15 KOs).
Garcia would be FURIOUS if De La Hoya trained his rival
Ryan Garcia says that if his promoter Oscar De La Hoya were training one of his rivals, he would be upset about it. He doesn’t say he would dump De La Hoya as a promoter, but it’s hard to imagine him re-upping with his Golden Boy Promotions company once his contract ran out.
Mayweather doesn’t see anything wrong with him training Haney, 21, because he says he’s not going to be fighting Tank Davis, and that Devin will be moving up to 140 soon. Maybe he’s right.
There are a lot of top fighters that Tank hasn’t fought during his career. The match-making that’s been done by Mayweather Promotions has been weak. Tank STILL hasn’t fought Vasiliy Lomachenko, and it’s starting to look like those two will never fight before the talented Ukrainian fighter retires.
It still looks terrible though that Mayweather is training Haney right under the nose of Tank Davis. What’s the end game for Mayweather. Is he trying to sign Haney, or does he want him to improve enough to beat Tank Davis? If this is an ego thing for Mayweather to create a guy that he can sculpt from the ground up to beat Tank for personal reasons, then it’s sad.
If Mayweather wants to teach Tank a lesson, he should try matching him against Lomachenko. But in that case, Mayweather wouldn’t be able to take the credit if Lomachenko beats Tank. He didn’t train Loma.
Garcia talks Mayweather training Haney
“Most definitely, that was kind of weird, but I think Gervonta and Mayweather have been having problems for a while,” said Ryan Garcia to IFL TV on Mayweather training Devin Haney, a rival to Tank. “I think the respect was lost some time ago, but I think Gervonta should take it personally.
“I would. If Oscar [De La Hoya] trained Gervonta or someone of that sort, I would say ‘F*** y0u.’ Do you know what I mean? I don’t know what the Floyd and Gervonta relationship is, to be honest.
“So I don’t know how they work, but I know Gervonta wasn’t too happy about that. I wouldn’t be. But kudos to Devin Haney getting good work from a legendary fighter [Mayweather],” said Ryan Garcia.
It looks like the problems that Tank Davis has with Mayweather have been brewing for some time now. Mayweather probably won’t release Tank Davis early from his contract with his promotional team, but he needs to try and maximize his potential before his contract is up.
That means that Mayweather needs to stop putting Tank Davis in with lesser fighters like we’ve been seeing, and focus on matching him against the other champions at 135. If Floyd puts Tank in with Haney right now, it likely won’t go well for Devin.
He doesn’t hit hard enough, and Tank would be all over him. Mayweather would end up looking silly if his objective is to make Haney shine. The shoulder roll that Mayweather has been teaching Haney would be useless against a puncher like Tank Davis.
Ryan: Lomachenko and Crawford don’t have great resumes
“He has one of the best resumes, and he hasn’t lost in a long time,” said Ryan Garcia on Canelo Alvarez. “Actually, he hasn’t lost since Floyd, right? I don’t understand why you wouldn’t put him as top pound-for-pound.
“[Vasily] Lomachenko is a great fighter, but his resume is OK, but it’s not the greatest resume in the world. You can’t lie here. He’s a great fighter, but he doesn’t have the best resume, and neither does Terence Crawford.
“None of them have had career-defining fights yet. At least Canelo has fought GGG. That was a career-defining fight. At least he did that. So why aren’t you putting Canelo as pound-for-pound?
“What is it? Is it because he’s not flashy enough? What is it? I really don’t understand. I think he should be pound-for-pound right now,” Garcia said on Canelo.
Ryan is right about the pound-for-pound elite Lomachenko and Crawford lacking great resumes. They look like great fighters, but unfortunately, neither of them have proven themselves against the cream of the crop opposition.
Lomachenko lost to Orlando Salido early in his career. Crawford still hasn’t fought his first A-level guy, and he’s now 32 and getting up there in age.
The organizations that choose the pound-for-pound fighters need to pick fighters that have proven themselves worthy of the top spots.
Garcia learning from watching Canelo
“I learn more visually from just watching him, his patience, and what he understands in the ring,” said Ryan Garcia on learning from Canelo. “It’s very valuable to me, and I have learned a few things from him, especially ring generalship.
“And how to use all 12 rounds because he does that really well in sparring. Usually, I like to get people out of there, but some people you can’t do that to. We’ll have to see. Maybe I will do that, but I will be ready for 12 round fight, and I think I’ve learned that with Canelo’s camp.
“Sometimes you won’t get them with that good shut, but I’ve been training for that one shot over and over again. I don’t know. I think I can catch a lot of people with these shots. They’re pretty quick. Don’t blink. You might get hit,” said Ryan Garcia.
Ryan is doing well in learning by watching Canelo Alvarez and the other top fighters, as that’s how fighters develop. A trainer isn’t going to teach a fighter to be the best. Guys, like Muhammad Ali, learned from watching Sugar Ray Robinson and other great fighters to develop into the fighter he was.
Canelo did the same thing. Now, Ryan Garcia is learning from observation.
Ryan Garcia expects to fight at 147 and 154 in the future
“Most definitely,” said Ryan Garcia when asked if he can move up in weight. “I walk around at 145 and 147. And I can definitely make the 140s to 147, and then when I grow up some more, I’ll it the 154s easily.
“I have the height to do it and the frame to do it. And I can get pretty big. I don’t know if you’ve seen a couple of my pictures. When I’m not in training camp, I can get pretty tank-like, you know? No pun intended.
“I can get pretty beefy. I think that I will be a multiple weight class world champion. And I hope so at least. I will be training every day, so we’ll see,” said Ryan Garcia.
It would be good for Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) to take his time before he moves up in weight. He needs to stay at 135 as long as he can before moving up to 140. There’s a lot more for Ryan to learn at lightweight against the top fighters in that weight class before going up to 140.
Ryan Garcia needs an opponent for his next fight
“I heard it’s two or three names, but it’s going to be whoever Ryan picks,” said Robert Garcia to ESNEWS Boxing on who he’ll be fighting next. “He’s got a team behind him, and they’re going to decide on their own. Until we see a contract, we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Robert on the potential of Ryan Garcia fighting Hector Tanajara.
