By Adam Baskin: Ryan Garcia has begun training with his new coach Derrick James in Texas, hoping to reinvent himself at 140 with the help of the popular trainer.
In looking at the training footage, what immediately jumps out at you is Ryan (23-1, 19 KOs) is standing straight up without bending his knees, resembling a Great Blue Heron wetlands bird, scooping up crawfish by the mouthful in the shallows.
How long before Ryan Garcia fires Derrick James? This writer will be surprised if James makes it through two fights before being canned for failing to transform him from being an influencer/boxer into a world champion.
Derrick has got his work cut out for him because the 24-year-old Ryan Garcia has been with three coaches, and none of them have improved him.
James will likely lose patience when he sees that Ryan isn’t following his instructions and getting routinely beaten up in sparring.
In Ryan’s widely criticized last fight against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, he quit on one knee after being dropped with a body shot in the seventh round last April.
What angered boxing fans is that Ryan got up immediately to his feet, looking unhurt after receiving the ten count from the referee. It gave the impression that Ryan had quit.
Can Derrick James turn Ryan into a world champion? It’s not a good sign that Derrick is eager for Ryan to fight the weakest link among the champions at 140, Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero. Indeed if Derrick believed in Ryan, he’d be pushing for a fight with one of these killers:
- Subriel Matias – IBF
- Teofimo Lopez – WBO
- Regis Prograis – WBC
Ryan ends up quitting his trainers and moving on when they fail to turn him into an unbeatable fighter. The fundamental problem is Ryan doesn’t follow directions well from his trainers. He’s one of those know-it-all types.
As his recently fired coach Joe Goosen pointed out, you don’t train Ryan Garcia in the traditional sense. You collaborate with him, which some boxing fans saw as a code language to mean that Ryan is a hard-headed, egotistical non-listener that is impossible to coach.
Even if Ryan did follow instructions from Derrick James and whoever his next trainer is afteer he gives him the royal boot out the door, he’s NOT going to be a quality fighter that you can put in the ring with the likes of Gervonta Davis, Subriel Matias, or Regis Prograis and expect him to win.
“Him being in the gym is what it is,” said lightweight contender Frank Martin to Fighthype about Ryan Garcia training at the same gym with him now.
“He may not want to fight me after we get in the ring and stuff. We may become cool. You never know how that plays out,” said Martin when asked if he thinks he’ll eventually fight Ryan Garcia.
It’s highly unlikely that Ryan will want to fight Frank Martin if he’s worked over by him during sparring. He’ll see the writing on the wall after sparring with Frank and will avoid him like the plague.
One gets the sense that Ryan is ONLY interested in making the most money possible by targeting fighters like Rolly Romero. If Teofimo comes back, he’ll be on Ryan’s list. Frank Martin doesn’t have the following for Ryan to want to fight him; besides, he’s too dangerous.
