By Pete Strauss: Bob Arum says he contacted Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions to offer a title shot for their young contender Ryan Garcia to challenge undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez, but they’ve yet to call him back to agree to it.
Arum states that he made a proposal for a fight with Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) before ‘King’ Ryan’s recent fight against Luke Campbell on January 2nd, but Golden Boy never called him back.
Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs0 has been talking day and night about wanting to take on Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis next. If the fight is made, ‘Kingry’ Garcia will be challenging Tank Davis for his WBA secondary 135-lb title.
The main title is held by Teofimo Lopez, and the less prestigious one, the WBA World lightweight belt, is held by Tank. It’s believed that Ryan’s chief reason for wanting to fight Tank Davis is his popularity, and the money he can make fighting him.
Whether this is a move for Ryan to ‘cash-out’ with the biggest payday he can get before he’s exposed or if he truly believes he has what it takes to beat Tank is unclear.
The fact that Ryan is talking about wanting to retire at 26 suggests that his interest in fighting Tank Davis is strictly for him to ‘cash-out’.
Davis, 26, has been around longer than Teofimo, and he’s accomplished more in winning world titles in two divisions. Teofimo, 23, is only now starting to become popular after his victory over WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight champion Vasily Lomachenko on October 17th last year.
Arum: Ryan Garcia lacks the fluidity to compete
“I think he’s obviously a big puncher and he has tremendous hand speed, but man, he is slow,” said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum to Barbershop Conversations in reacting to Ryan Garcia’s victory over Campbell.
“I mean, he [Ryan Garcia] has slow feet and he doesn’t have the fluidity that I think you need to compete in the lightweight division. While there are really quality things about him, there’s a lot of weaknesses I see.
“There’s no question about it that he’s a gamer, and he hits really well and he’s a courageous kid, but that don’t give him foot speed.
“I’m the kind of guy that the first thing I look at is how a fighter is able to move because that really dictates the position and dictates the angle.
“The fighters that have done the best, in my opinion, like Pacquiao and Ray Leonard, who were able to have this tremendous movement. That kept them out of harm’s way and enabled them to attack their opponents,” said Arum.
Many people have been saying precisely the same things that Arum is about Ryan Garcia having slow feet, fighting stiff, and lacking the fluidity to beat the best at 135.
Ryan, 5’10”, is a tall fighter for the lightweight division, and his legs are skinny like baseball great Babe Ruth’s pipestem legs.
My strength and protection ✝️ the next fight is coming soon… 🥊 pic.twitter.com/K2m57fNs9J
— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) January 17, 2021
Is King Ryan too immobile to beat the best?
Ryan looked stiff and immobile in his fight against Luke Campbell, which made the contest harder than it should have been. Campbell isn’t a great mover either, but he was clearly the more fluid of the two.
Ryan looked like he was fighting on stilts against Campbell, and he was unable to bend his knees the way normal fighters do. It was as if Ryan couldn’t bend his legs even if he wanted to, and that made him an easy target for Campbell’s punches.
Campbell landed a lot of straight lefts to the head of Ryan, who was slow in reacting to them. It’s anyone’s guess who would have won the fight if Campbell hadn’t left himself open for a body shot from Ryan in the seventh round.
The fighters that have thin legs often have problems moving around the ring without them weakening, and becoming rubbery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-IgCgEbJPw&t=1051s
Thomas ‘Hitman’ Hearns is a good example of a tall fighter with amazing power, but thin legs. Hearns would wear down quickly when he fought guys that made him move a lot.
The only fighter that has made Ryan Garcia use his legs in a fight during his five-year professional career is Carlos Morales, who pressured him and was wearing him down in their fight in 2018.
Golden Boy hasn’t taken Arum up on his offer
“To tell the truth, before the [Luke Campbell] fight, I called the Golden Boy office and talked to [Golden Boy president] Eric Gomez, a lovely guy, and I think I even talked to Oscar [De La Hoya].
“I said, ‘If [Ryan] Garcia wins the fight and if you’re interested in fighting [Teofimo] Lopez, give me a call.’ Well, I haven’t received a call. Maybe they’re planning on fighting somebody else, I don’t know,” said Arum.
Ryan has already told the world that he wants Gervonta (24-0, 23 KOs), and De La Hoya is backing him all the way with his decision.
There’s so much money in that fight for King Ryan and Golden Boy that it’s an easy decision on their part. Ryan has 8.2 million followers on Instagram, and his good friends, Jake and Logan Paul, have many millions of followers on Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though.
The Ryan Garcia vs. Tank fight will be advertised by Davis’ promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr, who has 24.5 million followers on Instagram and 7.9 million on Twitter.
It’s hard to imagine the many millions of boxing fans that will be aware of the Ryan vs. Tank fight. These two fighters could walk away with Mayweather-like money from this fight, and call it a day.
Kambosos next for Teofimo Lopez
“Teofimo has a mandatory fight against this Australian kid [George] Kambosos, and the people in Australia are sending us a proposal at the end of the week to do that fight in Australia probably in May,” said Arum.
“So if that’s the case, that’s what we’ll do. But if the pandemic a big problem in Australia because they have hardly any virus, but to keep it that way, they won’t let anybody in the country.
“It’s true, you can’t get in. So hopefully when we’re vaccinated and everything has settled down, we’ll be able to do a fight in May because everybody tells us that we’ll put 50,000 people in an outdoor stadium in Melbourne, and that would be really great.
“Now we bring it back to the United States because the great thing about the Aussies is they like to do fights early Sunday afternoon, and that coincides with primetime in the United States. So it’s perfect,” said Arum.
Kambosos (19-0, 10 KOs) will be a nice stay busy fight for IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight champion Teofimo to take for April or May. That’s when Teofimo is talking about defending against him.
Unfortunately, we may not see the 50,000 fans watching the Teofimo vs. Kambosos fight like Arum is talking about, though. Arum is making that projection based on a vaccine being out for the general public might that time.
We may not see the vaccine out until June or July and it might not be out in time for Teofimo’s fight with Kambosos. That would obviously be a disappointment for Arum because the only thing that Kambosos brings to the table for Teofimo is a big audience if the fight were to take place in front of fans.