Regis Prograis feels that WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez is “too explosive” on offense for the chinny Ryan Garcia if the two fought right now.
The WBC 140-lb champion Prograis notes that Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) has been dropped by Gervonta Davis & Luke Campbell previously, making him a poor candidate to take on an “explosive” puncher like Teofimo (19-1, 13 KOs)
Golden Boy Promotions haven’t given any hints on who the 25-year-old Ryan will fight next after his uneven performance against fringe lightweight contender Oscar Duarte last Saturday night in Houston, Texas.
Is Ryan Garcia ready for the weakest link?
After the fight, Ryan said he wants WBA 140-lb champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero, the weakest link, in his next fight. The other option for Ryan is WBO champion Teofimo, and that would be a bigger money fight but would involve much risk for the popular social media star.
Ryan looked frightened and amateurish throughout that fight but got lucky, hurting the easy-to-hit Duarte (26-2-1, 21 KOs) with a left hook to the head in the eighth to wobble the Mexican fighter. Moments later, he dropped him. The referee then stopped it at the count of nine.
What Ryan needs are more fights that he uses to develop his skills, and that would mean that he would have to delay his goal of fighting for a world title. He’s NOT ready to challenge for a belt unless he just wants the money and isn’t serious about winning.
Fights to help Ryan develop
– Sandor Martin
– Sergey Lipinez
– Brandun Lee
– Gabriel Valenzuela
– Elvis Rodriguez
– Steve Claggett
– Jamaine Ortiz
– Liam Paro
Teofimo will beat Ryan Garcia
“Ryan & Teo? Teo. I say, ‘Teo,'” said Regis Prograis to the media when asked who would win a fight between WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez and fringe contender Ryan Garcia if the two meet next.
“If he got dropped by Tank. I think Teo would be too explosive, but you never know. Until they fight, you just never know.”
It would be a potential disaster for Ryan to take on Teofimo because his skills are too rudimentary at this stage for him to have a shot of winning that fight.
Ryan’s fight last weekend against Duarte showed that he’s a diamond in the rough and needs a lot of work before he’s ready to challenge real champions. Rolly is more of a paper champion, so Ryan would have a puncher’s chance of winning.
Improvements Ryan must make:
- Develop his right hand
- Stop turning his back
- Using jab more
- Standing his ground
- Defense
“Stylewise, I think Ryan [doesn’t measure up]. He got dropped by Tank, he got dropped by Luke Campbell, and stuff like that. I just think Teo may be too explosive for him,” said Prograis, pointing out the obvious.
If Ryan is going life & death with a sub-level fighter like Duarte, of course, he won’t be ready to deal with Teofimo. Ryan needs A LOT of work before he’ll be ready to take on Teofimo, and it’s possible that he never will be.
Oh yeah, Ryan looked like a scrub who stumbled into the ring against Tank last April, and it wasn’t even mildly competitive. Tank just played around, jabbing, potshooting, and moving around the ring.
When Tank would turn it on briefly, Ryan would shrink from the contact, run, hold or turn his back in the same sign of surrender that we saw from him against Duarte.
The back-turning bit that Ryan used against Tank has been a staple in his game for years, and sad that none of his trainers have been able to break him of this habit. It would appear that Ryan is resistant to change and will always turn his back when met with pressure from his opponents. I don’t know.
Maybe Ryan needs to use the darkroom approach that Anthony Joshua used by going on a four-day retreat in a darkened room to get his head together to make the changes he needs to improve his chances of competing with the big dogs at 140.
Ryan doesn’t deserve Tank Davis fight
“Why take the fight then?” said Prograis when told that Ryan Garcia fought Gervonta Davis with a rib injury last April. “Bro, you can’t make an excuse after the fight. They said about the weight and all that type of stuff, but you agreed to that.
“On [Showtime’s] ‘All Access,’ you said that it wasn’t affecting you. But then you can’t come after the fight, after the fact, and say, ‘Oh, this is affecting me.’ You can’t do that,” said Prograis about Ryan making excuses for his loss to Tank Davis.
The excuses that Ryan made after his fight with Tank, blaming his loss on having a rib injury & being weight drained, were pathetic and made him look like someone that can’t face the truth.
“You said, ‘It doesn’t affect me. I’m good. The weight doesn’t affect me and nothing like that.’ Don’t make excuses after the fight. You got knocked out, and that’s it,” said Prograis.
“I do think he’ll [Ryan Garcia] will do better. If he goes to 140 and fights Tank, I think he does do better, but at the same time, you don’t deserve that fight. You do have to build yourself up.”
I don’t know if Prograis has been keeping up with things, but Ryan is already at 140, even though he fought a 135-pounder last weekend. If Ryan keeps fighting lightweights at 140, that would be weird, but another example of his career being more about making money than creating a real legacy.
“You have to go through me, and somebody else [at light welterweight] to get that fight [against Gervonta] again, because you got stopped. So, you can’t start making excuses now. It don’t go like that,” said Regis about Ryan making excuses for his loss to Tank.
There is no way Ryan Garcia is going to fight Prograis, and it doesn’t matter if he wins his fight this Saturday night against Devin Haney. Ryan won’t fight Prograis because it’s too risky, and there wouldn’t be the big money available to him that he just got fighting Tank.
Kingry won’t want to take an enormous pay cut in a fight that he has very little chance of winning against Prograis.
“Picking & choosing, I guess,” said Prograis, reacting to a question on his thoughts on Tank Davis moving up to 140 and face Mario Barrios in the past.
“He felt that Mario Barrios was going to be an easy fight, and he felt like Ryan was going to be more dangerous. That’s why he was like, ‘You can’t do it.’ It’s the business side. He [Gervonta] was the A-side [against Ryan]. So if you’re the A-side, you can control more stuff, and that’s what happened.”
Gervonta has been picking & choosing his opponents for his entire ten-year professional career, and that’s not going to change. If Ryan does fight him again, a rehydration clause & a catchweight will likely be part of the conditions of him getting the rematch.
“140 or nothing, that’s it. I’m not going down. I can’t go down or nothing like that. It’s 140, and that’s it. That’s all for me, and if not, whatever, scratch the fight,” said Prograis on whether he would be willing to go down in weight to 135.
