By Adam Baskin: Ryan Garcia has gained much attention with his move to high-profile trainer Derrick James to take over as his new coach after parting ways with Joe Goossen.
It’s an overwhelming task that trainer Derrick James has in front of him in trying to transform the popular Ryan Garcia, who rose to fame based on his large following on Instagram, into a world champion.
Derrick will soon find out with Ryan that you can’t make a fighter with an inferior ability and turn him into a talented star. There’s only so much Derrick or any trainer, can do with a guy like Ryan because he can’t become a major talent in the sport.
What will be interesting for this writer is how long Derrick lasts as Ryan’s trainer before he, too, is fired for failing to instill talent in him to magically transform him into a world champion, which he is ill-equipped to become.
Even the most outstanding trainers can’t take an Instagram boxer and turn them into Roberto Duran or Sugar Ray Leonard. Ryan is a one-dimensional fighter, who can beat some fringe contenders if matched carefully, but will always fail if thrown in with a talented guy. If Ryan fights any of these guys at 140, he’ll surely lose, and it won’t be competitive:
Regis Prograis
Josh Taylor
Subriel Matias
Teofimo Lopez
Arnold Barboza Jr
Gary Antuanne Russell
Richardson Hitchins
Jose Ramirez
Sandor Martin
Liam Paro
Shohjahon Ergashev
Kenneth Sims
Batyr Akhmedov
Steve Spark
Brandun Lee
Adam Azim
Jose Zepeda
Boxing fans have shown overwhelming approval of the 24-year-old Ryan Garcia’s selection of Derrick James, who also trains Anthony Joshua, Frank Martin, Errol Spence Jr, and Jermell Charlo.
It’s questionable whether Derrick will get more out of Ryan than his past coaches, Goossen and Eddy Reynoso. When it comes to fighters, you can only judge them by what they’ve done in the past.
As we’ve seen with Ryan, he hasn’t improved under any of those coaches to look good enough to win a world title. Indeed, Ryan looked just as one-dimensional in his recent loss to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
Perhaps the ONLY way Ryan Garcia can win a world title is if he’s put in the same situation as we saw with Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero last weekend in which he matched against the 40-year-old Ismael Barroso.
That was the only way a limited fighter like Rolly, a similar social media-level boxer like Ryan, could ever win a world title, and even then, it required a premature stoppage by referee Tony Weeks for him to win it.
As Vasyl Lomachenko pointed out, Ryan Garcia only has a left hook, which doesn’t work against good fighters.
