By Sam Volz: Ryan Garcia took a shot at newly-crowned lightweight champion Devin Haney during Tuesday’s roundtable with the media, saying that he didn’t see any “urgency” from him or former unified champion George Kambosos Jr. to set themselves apart in their recent fight on June 5th.
Some boxing fans believe the 23-year-old Ryan Garcia is jealous of the attention that Haney (28-0, 15 KOs0 and Kambosos Jr (20-1, 10 KOs) received from fans over their recent fight.
Ryan has had opportunities to fight Haney, but he’s turned them down. Kambosos had no interest in fighting Ryan, saying that he had failed to prove himself worthy of a fight against him when he held the lightweight titles.
There was a ton of interest from people worldwide in the Kambosos-Haney fight. Haney’s victory made him a star overnight, catapulting the young 23-year-old California native to the #1 spot in the 135-lb division, setting him up for a future massive money clash against Tank Davis.
Garcia (22-0, 18 KOs) had already Tweeted about the Kambosos vs. Haney fight during the contest, calling it “boring,” which resulted in superstar Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis telling him to “shut the f*** up.”
“Some people are just happy with getting the W. Some people are just different people,” said Ryan Garcia during Tuesday’s press conference, belittling Devin Haney’s performance against George Kambosos.
“I Tweeted about it. It definitely wasn’t the most exciting fight, ” Ryan Garcia continued about the Kambosos vs. Haney undisputed lightweight championship on June 5th.
Ryan compared the Kambosos-Haney fight to the famous September 1981 battle between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas ‘Hitman’ Hearns, saying that it wasn’t anywhere near that level of a contest.
That was an unfair comparison by Ryan because there have been few fights since that compared to that match-up between the knockout artist Hearns and the 1976 Olympic gold medalist Leonard.
“Devin Haney, congrats to him for winning that fight. He did his thing, but I didn’t see any urgency from them to separate themselves from one another,” said Ryan.
We didn’t see outstanding performance from Ryan Garcia in his last fight against Emmanuel Tagoe or the one before that against Luke Campbell, which puts him in a position where he can devalue the efforts of Haney and Kambosos.
It would be one thing if Ryan had performed like Leonard or Hearns in his recent fights, then he would have room to talk, but he hasn’t. He looks like a one-dimensional fighter, a guy that only throws left hooks.
