By Adam Baskin: Moments ago, Ryan Garcia announced Derrick James as his new trainer to replace the fired Joe Goosen.
Derrick won’t take it easy on Ryan. If he thinks he will hang around and hit mitts with his little brother Sean Garcia, he likely won’t last in James’ gym.
The recently knocked out light welterweight Ryan (23-1, 19 KO) will be joining Derrick’s gym in Texas to train alongside former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, three-belt welterweight champ Errol Spence Jr and undisputed junior middleweight champ Jermell Charlo.
Considering Ryan’s lack of accomplishments in boxing, he will stick out like a sore thumb in Derrick’s gym. Joshua, Spence, and Charlo are world-class fighters.
You can only imagine how Ryan will be ostracized by those excellent fighters if he goes about his training in a superficial, half-a**eed manner. It won’t work for Ryan Garcia to try and dictate how his training will go with Derrick. Ryan’s now ex-coach Joe Goosen revealed that you don’t train him in the traditional sense.
Ryan is a popular guy on social media, who has hung around as a contender, turning down a title shot against Devin Haney and pressuring Gervonta Davis to give him a fight until he finally succeeded and was knocked out after taking a knee.
The way that Ryan fell apart against Tank Davis, it’s difficult to imagine any trainer, be it Derrick James or anyone, can improve him enough to win a world title against a talented champion at 140.
You can argue that Ryan’s only chance of winning a world title at 140 is to take Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero up on his offer to give him a shot at his newly won WBA title. Rolly & Ryan are two of a kind.
Whether this will work out for the 24-year-old Ryan Garcia remains to be seen, as he’s flying through high-profile coaches without showing any visible improvements.
Time for the return pic.twitter.com/AjRlIhP69m
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) May 18, 2023
Ryan was with the famous Eddy Reynoso but left his gym after pulling out of his fight with Javier Fortuna in 2021. Next for Ryan was Joe Goosen, who lasted all of three bouts but was canned after Kingry’s seventh round knockout loss to Gervontaa Davis on April 22nd.
No reason was given for Goosen being terminated, but some believe it was a combination of factors. The camp had a mole, and the fight didn’t go well. Afterward, Goosen wasn’t seen at the post-fight press conference.
It’ll be interesting to see how long Derrick James lasts as Ryan Garcia’s coach before he’s fired or he kicks the popular social media star out of the gym for loafing and mickey-mousing around doing what he pleases.
