Will Ryan Garcia be motivated by Canelo’s criticism?

By Boxing News - 10/29/2021 - Comments

By Huck Allen: Canelo Alvarez appears to be attempting to encourage his friend and fellow gym-mate Ryan Garcia by telling the media this week that he’s “wasting” his potential by not coming to the gym to work hard at improving.

It’s debatable whether the former four-division world champion Canelo is taking the right approach to galvanize the young 23-year-old ‘King Ry’ Garcia (21-0,18 KOs) to get in the gym and work hard at his craft.

Some would argue that Canelo should have pulled Ryan Garcia to the side and spoken with him in private about his concerns over his lack of effort rather than airing his views publically. It’s possible that Canelo didn’t feel comfortable with discussing what he’s seen from him as a lack of effort.

Needless to say, this has been a bad year for Ryan, who first dealt with a mental health issue that caused the cancellation of his July 9th fight against Javier Fortuna.

Then to add to that, Ryan injured his right wrist while training for a November 27th fight against Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz Jr., and he’s now expected to be out of action until the first quarter of 2022 after having surgery to fix the problem.

Image: Will Ryan Garcia be motivated by Canelo's criticism?

Ryan is already a multi-millionaire, having accumulated a lot of money without winning or fighting for a world title. For someone to have an estimated net worth of $10 million at the raw age of 23, it’s got to be difficult to find the motivation to go to the gym on a daily basis.

“It depends on what type of person you are. You can take it as motivation,” said Ak to the DAZN Boxing Show on Ryan Garcia receiving criticism from Canelo Alvarez about his lack of dedication to the sport.

“[Canelo] was asked a question, and at that particular moment, he didn’t know how to divert. He just had to spill his truth to whoever was asking him the question.

“I just think it depends on how Ryan takes it. He can take it as motivation. Maybe you can take offense to it and tell Canelo on the side, ‘Canelo, my man, you could have pulled me to the side and said it in private.’ Let’s turn it into something positive. Maybe it motivates Ryan Garcia.”

If Ryan doesn’t have his heart set on fighting and or putting in the hard work on a daily basis in the gym, he’ll show that by not working out. Canelo should know by now if Ryan is putting in the work when he does show up at Eddy Reynoso’s gym in San Diego.

Canelo lives and breathes boxing, so it must be alien to him to see someone that doesn’t want to put in the same effort as him to get better. There are a lot of hungry fighters that are around the same age as Ryan Garcia, and they’re putting in the hard work to improve. Ryan could be left behind.

“He’s wasting a lot of time and wasting his talent,” said Canelo to the Complex about Ryan Garcia failing to realize his potential.

“I look at him and don’t see him 100 percent dedicated and, to us, that’s a bad signal. We always remind him as a team to come to the gym, to train, and to learn because you need to be in the gym.”