Ryan Garcia and Luke Campbell discuss Saturday’s fight in Dallas, Tx

By Boxing News - 12/31/2020 - Comments

By Matt Lieberman: Ryan Garcia and Luke Campbell were both lowkey on Thursday for their final press conference ahead of their 12-round fight this Saturday night on DAZN. The fight will be taking place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.

Garcia and Campbell were ordered by the World Boxing Council to fight for the interim WBC lightweight title.

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Ryan went ahead with the fight, even though he has no intention of challenging WBC 135-lb champion Devin Haney right away.

Ryan is saving Haney for last after he beats Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, Teofimo Lopez, and Vasyl Lomachenko.

The highly hyped social media star King Ryan (20-0, 17 KOs( did most of the talking, and he sounded a little defensive when asked if he’ll be able to handle going 12 rounds. Garcia, 22, has gone 10 rounds twice during his career, but he’s never gone 12.

What makes some boxing fans question whether Garcia can go 12 rounds is the way he faded in his fight against Carlos Morales in 2018.

Ryan looked exhausted after he failed to knockout Morales in the first half of the fight, and he was on the run during the championship rounds. Morales wore Ryan down with his pressure.

Image: Ryan Garcia and Luke Campbell discuss Saturday's fight in Dallas, Tx

Ryan Garcia tells fans, “Don’t blink”

“I’ve trained as hard as I can to go 12 rounds. If it happens to go that way, I will go that way,” said Ryan Garcia to DAZN during Thursday’s final news conference.

“If he brings it out of me, if he’s tough if he can take a shot, then that’s what’s going to happen, but I’m ready for it. They can say all they want that I can’t go 12 rounds, but when I get in there, I train to go 1,000 rounds.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions because I haven’t had the chance to display that. If they took me 10 or 12 rounds, I would have went those rounds. I haven’t had the chance because I seen the shot and I took it.

Now, if Luke can do it, he’ll do it,” a testy-sounding Ryan Garcia said about Campbell potentially going the distance with him. I’ve trained for a war. I know Luke is a tough guy.

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“When he gets hit, he gets dropped and he gets up and he keeps fighting. Like I said, if he can take the shot, gets dropped, I’ve seen him fight on. So I think it might be a good fight. Make sure you don’t blink,” said Ryan Garcia.

Compared to some of the recent fight build-ups, Ryan and Campbell were polite and didn’t do any trash talk. The moderator tried hard to get some animosity going, but neither of them was interested.

If there was a crowd that was in attendance for the press conference, it’s likely we’d have seen booth fighters more animated.

Campbell expecting it to be a great fight

“I didn’t perform to the best of my ability, and when I watch the fight back, I feel I could do so much better than that,” said Campbell of his fight against Lomachenko. ”

Image: Ryan Garcia and Luke Campbell discuss Saturday's fight in Dallas, Tx

Ever since then, I’ve trained to be the best version I can be for this fight.  I’m coming to fight, this is going to be a fantastic fight, and I believe it’s two of the best in the division that is facing off with each other. It’s going to be a fantastic fight,” said Campbell.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the 5’10” Ryan deals with a fighter his own size for a change. In Ryan’s past fights, he’s towered over his shorter opposition, and that’s given him a big advantage. On Saturday, the 5’9″ Campbell will be looking Ryan almost in the eye when they square off.

“It’s going to be explosive, it’s going to be a ring IQ of a gold medalist against the next Golden Boy potentially with a great future,” said Sergio Mora about Campbell vs. Garcia.

“It’s going to be speed vs. experience, and fight IQ vs. distance and length. I’m excited for this fight. It’s not only going to be youth vs. experience but explosiveness. Get ready.”

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