By Sean Jones: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says his matchmakers tell him that Ryan Garcia is a plodder and can’t fight back when pressured. Those flaws will eventually lead to Ryan losing, and perhaps sooner than most boxing fans think.
Arum sees the young 22-year-old lightweight contender King Ryan (21-0, 18 KOs) eventually having problems when he faces a big puncher. The wise promoter Arum thinks Ryan will lose to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis when that fight happens.
Interestingly, Arum isn’t talking about matching his fighter IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO lightweight champion, Teofimo Lopez, against Ryan.
Arum says he’d be interested in putting a fight together between Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) and Tank Davis (24-0, 23 KOs), though, if his promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr contacted him.
Ryan had all he could handle in his fight against 33-year-old Luke Campbell earlier this month on January 2nd. Campbell knocked Garcia down in the second round and hurt him badly.
Arum’s matchmaker’s see flaws in Ryan Garcia
“Our matchmakers say that even though he’s a powerful young kid, he’s very, very slow on his feet, and he can’t fight backing up,” said Bob Arum to Gareth A Davies about Ryan Garcia.
“So a really good hard-punching guy and I think that fight [Teofimo Lopez] might happen sooner. Tank Davis would probably beat him [Ryan], although he’s a little small,” Arum said about Tank likely beating Ryan Garcia.
If Ryan can’t fix these flaws in his game before taking on someone with talent like Tank, he’s going to get knocked out. That’s why it’s a bad idea on Golden Boy Promotion’s part to put Garcia in with Tank right now.
Watching Ryan fight, he might not be capable of improving his foot speed and his ability to fight backward.
As a fighter, you either have food speed, or you don’t. Look at Canelo Alvarez. He’s been a professional for 16 years, and he still has slow feet.
Canelo can fight while backing up, and he doesn’t struggle the way Ryan does when his opponents pressure him.
Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosis being planned
“Fine, when we get a call from Floyd [Mayweather] that he’s interested in the fight [with Teofimo], then we’ll make the fight,” said Arum about a fight between Gervonta Davis and Teofimo. Otherwise, we’re talking about fighting in Australia against George Kambosos, the [IBF lightweight] mandatory [for Tefimo].
“But again, Gervonta Davis and Teofimo Lopez would be a very big fight, at least here in the United States.
“Definitely, we’ve been talking to the Aussies, and we’re supposed to have a letter of intent from them by the end of May sometime, but we’re at the mercy of this coronavirus.
“By May, I think we’ll be OK. Melbourne,” said Arum about the location for the Teofimo vs. Kambosos fight. “Yeah, they’re talking about a big stadium fight, yes.
“Yeah, that’s what their plan is to do it in one of their big stadiums, which means 50,000 people or something like that.
“They’re doing events at full capacity. The problem there is the quarantine, which is a strict quarantine for 14 days.
“Even more so, they have prohibited foreigners from coming in at all to Australia until further notice,” Arum said.
As you can see, George Kambosis is the fight that Arum wants for Teofimo, and he’s not talking about Devin Haney. Teofimo has been name-dropping in mentioning Devin’s name, giving him many boxing fans hope that fight will happen.
If there were true interest in a fight between Teofimo and Haney, Arum would discuss the fight. He’s talking about Kambosis, and it’s easy to see why. He’s a ticket-seller, and there’s money to be made in Australia by Top Rank and Teofimo.
Lomachenko wants a rematch with Teofimo
“No, I haven’t. I’ve spoken to Egis Klimas, his manager, and he wants a rematch with Lopez,” said Arum about Vasily Lomachenko wanting a rematch with Teofimo.
“Lopez isn’t inclined to give him [Lomachenko] a rematch. So we’re going to see what we do with Lomachenko if one of these people from the Middle East, who are always around, and they’ve mentioned doing this rematch.
“Well, money always talks in boxing. Again, we can’t do these big events without spectators. You just can’t. Too many revenue streams,” said Arum.
Lomachenko is out of luck as far as a rematch with Teofimo goes. He’s not interested in fighting Lomachenko again, and neither is his dad.