Ronnie Shields says Ryan Garcia will be hard to beat

By Boxing News - 01/05/2021 - Comments

By Jeff Aronow: Trainer Ronnie Shields believes that Ryan Garcia will be tough to beat by the top lightweights in the division due to his power and overall talent.

Coach Shields isn’t ruling out a win for King Ryan when he faces Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and the other world champions at 135.

Shields likes the toughness that Ryan Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) showed in getting off the deck in the second round after getting dropped by Luke Campbell last Saturday night in Dallas.

Ryan came back in the third round, and retook control of the fight, and battered Campbell until stopping him in the seventh.

What was impressive about the performance from King Ryan was the way that he followed the instructions given to him by his trainer Eddy Reynoso.

Ryan took directions well and applied what was told to him by Reynoso, which saved him from falling apart after his disastrous start to the fight.

Shields talks about Ryan Garcia’s talent

“This kid, Ryan Garcia, is one of the best fighters I’ve seen in a long time,” said trainer Ronnie Shields to Fino Boxing. “He’s got a lot of talent. You saw it, you can get knocked down, but that doesn’t make any difference.

Image: Ronnie Shields says Ryan Garcia will be hard to beat

“The next round, he came back and took control of the fight again, and then he knocked him out,” Shields said of Ryan’s knockout of Campbell. “Let me tell you something. This kid is going to be hard to beat.

“Until all those guys fight each other, it’s hard to say,” said Sheilds when asked who’s the best fighters among Ryan Garcia, Tank Davis, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez.

“If you look at Lopez, his win over Lomachenko was a remarkable fight. He had a great game plan, and he stuck to it and won hands down.

“Tank is one of the best fighters in the world, and so is Devin Haney. Look, whoever has the best night when they fight, it’s hard to say who that’s going to be,” said Shields on whether Ryan can beat the top guys at 135.

Ryan’s power will make him a tough out for Teofimo Lopez, Tank Davis, Vasily Lomachenko, and Devin Haney.

Without major changes to his game, Ryan will have problems if he faces someone like Lomachenko, who will take away his left hook and beat him up.

It’s smart that Garcia isn’t talking about wanting to fight Lomachenko because he likely knows that he would get picked apart.

The two sparred in the past, and Loma says Ryan was running for the trenches and trying to protect his face the whole time. Indeed, Lomachenko wasn’t impressed with what he saw from him.

Canelo impressed with Ryan Garcia’s power

“A lot of power and good looking too,” said Canelo Alvarez to Little Giant Boxing in talking about Rank Garcia.

It’s a big compliment from Canelo Alvarez in talking about Ryan’s power. He showed against Campbell that he could hurt him each time he hit him cleanly with his left hook.

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Canelo needs to give Ryan some pointers about helping him move his head and upper body to avoid the incoming shots.

Alvarez’s head movement is one of the main reasons why he’s had so much success since his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2012, as he learned from that loss.

A lot of the things that Mayweather used against Canelo, he adopted into his own game. Ryan hasn’t faced anyone like Mayweather, but he can still learn from him by watching his past fights. If Canelo could incorporate Mayweather’s head dnad body movement into his own fighting style, Ryan can do the same.

Campbell was competitive with Ryan through the first four rounds, but the fight got out of hand starting in the fifth when Garcia landed a monstrous left hook in the final seconds.

Campbell was out on his feet after that shot, and he was ready to be finished at that point. If not for the bell saving ‘Cool Hand’ Luke, he would have likely been poleaxed by Ryan.

Ryan Garcia: I won’t get caught again

“I’m 22, I got dropped in one of the biggest fights I’ve been in, and I showed that I can get up and keep fighting,” said Ryan Garcia about his second-round knockdown.

“People can judge all they want, but you get in there with one of the top elite fighters like Campbell.

Image: Ronnie Shields says Ryan Garcia will be hard to beat

“I got caught because I was a little lazy. I got touched, but it was fine. It was a shot that I promise I won’t get hit with again. I’m going to get better from this, way better. This is just the starter,” said Garcia.

Ryan was still getting hit with that same left-hand shot even in the seventh round, so it’s not like he was adapting after the knockdown in round two.

It’s good that Ryan is vowing not to get hit with a lead left hands any longer, but that’s going to be hard for him to do. He’s an aggressive fighter who comes forward looking to attack his opponent.

When you fight the way that Ryan does, you’re going to get hit a lot. That’s the downside of being a knockout artist.

You can’t avoid getting hit by your opponents when you look to KO them the way Ryan is. All the great knockout artists through the history of boxing were hit frequently.

The top knockout artists in the history of boxing:

  • Julian Jackson (55-6-0-2 49 KO)
  • George Foreman (76-5 69 KO)
  • Archie Moore (185-23-11 131 KO)
  • Rocky Marciano (49-0 43 KO)
  • Carlos Zárate (66-4 63 KO)
  • Khaosai Galaxy (49-1 43 KO)
  • Rubén Olivares (88-13-3 77 KO)
  • Wilfredo Gomez (44-3-1 42 KO)
  • Earnie Shavers (74-14-1 68 KO)
  • Alexis Arguello (82-8 65 KO)

The difference between Ryan Garcia and those fighters is he’s more reliant on one punch to KO his opponents.

The guys on the above list were fighters with power in both hands, making it more difficult for their opponents to take away their main weapons.

If Ryan wants to have a successful career, he will need to develop his right hand before he starts facing the elite-level fighters at 135. Right now, Ryan is still too one-dimensional on offense for him to beat the top guys.

A fighter like Vasily Lomachenko would likely take away Ryan’s left hook and toy with him until he quits or is knocked out.

Campbell says Ryan Garcia, the hardest hitter he’s faced

“I just told him, ‘Thank you for giving me the opportunity to showcase my skills.’ I asked him if I was the hardest hitter he’s ever fought, and he said, ‘Yeah.'” said Ryan Garcia.

Campbell telling the 22-year-old King Ryan that he’s the hardest puncher he’s ever been in with is a high compliment, as he’s been in with many great fighters over the years.

Image: Ronnie Shields says Ryan Garcia will be hard to beat

When you factor in that Campbell is a 2012 Olympic gold medalist with many amateurs and professional experience, it says a lot that he feels that Ryan is the biggest puncher he’s faced.

Ryan will need more than power if he wants to become a world champion and stay there for any length of time. Against a limited fighter like Campbell, Ryan’s power was enough to carry him to victory.

But when he gets in there with fighters that can punch as hard as him if not harder like Tank Davis, he could have problems unless he shows more facets to his game.

Punchers are a dime a dozen in boxing, unfortunately. It’s likely that whatever advantage Ryan has in the power department over the other top 135-pounders, it’s not going to be enough if his defense and mobility aren’t up to par.

In the Campbell fight, Ryan showed little ability to move around the ring. What we saw from Ryan was him going backward and forward in straight lines with any lateral movement.

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Great fighters like Oscar De La Hoya were excellent, moving laterally around the ring early in his career when he was Ryan’s age.

That’s one of the reasons why the ‘Golden Boy’ was able to capture six-division world titles and beat a huge little of superb fighters before retiring in 2008.