By Dan Ambrose: Promoter Eddie Hearn has joined in with Canelo Alvarez in criticizing lightweight contender Ryan Garcia for his lack of dedication to the sport.
Hearn says the undefeated 23-year-old ‘King Ry’ is out of place training at the same gym as Canelo with coach Eddy Reynoso because they expect fighters to be dedicated to improving, and working hard.
According to Hearn, Ryan hasn’t shown the dedication that other fighters have, but it’s not surprising that he hasn’t.
The Golden Boy promoted Ryan Garcia is already a multi-millionaire despite never having fought for a world title or beaten any big names during his five-year professional career.
“I think it’s no secret in the sport of boxing that from a dedication point of view, Ryan Garcia is not the top of that list,” said Eddie Hearn to the DAZN Boxing Show.
“The reality is he doesn’t work as hard as a lot of fighters, and one of those being Canelo Alvarez.”
It sounds good that Ryan Garcia trains at the same gym as Canelo, but you can argue that it was just a superficial move on his part to train there with the Mexican star and his coach Eddy Reynoso.
It’s like joining a prestigious club and showing up every once in a while to be seen and talked about but not taking part.
With Ryan, his popularity has been fueled by his huge social media following rather than what he’s done inside the ring.
With 8.8 million followers on Instagram and 1.09 million followers on YouTube, Ryan guarantees huge audiences whenever he fights, and it doesn’t matter that he’s not holding a world title.
Having that kind of popularity places Ryan Garcia above many world champions in the sport, which is obviously troubling.
Ryan has fought just once this year, beating Luke Campbell in a WBC lightweight title eliminator in January. Surprisingly, Garcia chose not to take the next logical step to utilize his mandatory position to challenge WBC 135-lb champion Devin Haney for his title.
It was baffling that Ryan wouldn’t take advantage of his mandatory position to challenge Haney for his title, and many boxing fans saw it as weak on his part.
You can only wonder what Canelo thought of Ryan’s decision not to challenge Haney for his title, as he’s not the type of person that would fight in a title eliminator and then change his mind about taking on the champion.
Canelo took a shot at Ryan last week, saying that he’s wasting his potential by not training hard and that they remind him to come to the gym.
Ryan is currently out of action with a hand injury that he sustained while training for a fight with Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz Jr. that was scheduled for November 27th. The injury is expected to keep Ryan out until early 2022, and it’s unknown if he’ll attempt to reschedule the fight with Jojo Diaz when he does return.
“If you’re not prepared to put the work and effort in, you’re not welcome in the Canelo / Reynoso gym. It’s no boxing, no life,” said Hearn about Ryan Garcia.
“It’s not a social media party, boxing is everything and you’ve seen the dedication Canelo Alvarez has put into his career, and with all the achievements and his legacy, he still works as hard as he does now,” said Hearn.
Perhaps Ryan will turn things around in 2022 in response to the criticism he’s received from Canelo, Hearn, and others, but the below Instagram post by the young star suggests otherwise.
It’s going to take a lot for Ryan to be single-minded and dedicated to the sport the way that Canelo has been his entire career. If Ryan lacks the dedication at an early age, it isn’t easy to imagine he’ll suddenly find it as he gets older.
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