Commentator Tim Bradley says Ryan Garcia would be destroyed by the top 140-pounders, Subriel Matias, Regis Prograis, or Devin Haney, based on his back-turning performance last Saturday night against Oscar Duarte at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
The former world champion Bradley feels that Ryan’s back-turning wasn’t him using the shoulder roll as some fans believed. He saw it as a further sign that Ryan fights like “Scaredy Cat” and turns his back to his opponents when he’s pressured hard.
Bradley states that he’d seen Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) use this same approach in some of his other fights, turning his back on his opponents to keep from getting hit in the face while in the trenches.
Basically, when Ryan was turning his back to his opponents, as he did against fringe contender Duarte (26-2-1, 21 KOs), he was limiting the target area where he could be hit.
Interestingly, the referee, James Green, warned Duarte for hitting Ryan in the back rather than telling him to stop turning around. With the referee repeatedly telling Duarte to stop hitting Ryan in the back, he was handicapping his game and giving the A-side fighter a huge edge.
If Duarte couldn’t land his punches to Ryan’s head or body without being warned by the referee, he was handcuffed, and this tactic neutralized his offense. It was surprising that the referee allowed Ryan to do this.
Ryan Garcia turned his back like “Scaredy Cat” – Tim Bradley
“One thing I did see through the course of the fight was him turning his back,” said Tim Bradley to ProBox TV, talking about Ryan Garcia and how he frequently turned his back to his opponent Oscar Duarte last Saturday night.
“I wouldn’t call it a shoulder roll. It was more of a backturn. When you have someone back turning like that, I did that in my first sparring session. I turned my back on my opponent because I was green. I have no clue on how to fight on the inside,” said Bradley.
It was obvious why Ryan was turning his back to Duarte, and it certainly wasn’t an attempt to use the shoulder roll. It was a signal of surrender on Ryan’s part, giving up under a barrage of punches.
If you’ve seen street fights before, this a tactic that some use when they’ve been defeated. You hate to say it, but Ryan was giving up against Duarte, a low-level 135-pounder, and the referee should have waived it off at that point because Kingry clearly was hoisting the white flag of surrender.
“I was ten years old. I haven’t seen that since I was ten years old, a fighter in the ring turning their back,” continued Bradley, talking about Ryan’s back-turning bit. “Although, I have seen Ryan do it in the past as well, but not as much as he did in this fight. That is going to have to change.
“He puts himself in a bad position most of the time, turning his back. I have to say the referee did a terrible job not warning him. I think he probably warned him once or twice, but he was warning Duarte hitting behind the head. Well, stop turning your back.”
This writer didn’t see the referee warning Ryan Garcia at all about him turning his back. The only one that the ref was warning was Duarte, and he did it many times, giving one the impression that he was on the verge of taking points or disqualifying him.
It was madness that the referee didn’t stop Ryan from turning his back or using his straight arm, which was a big part of his game. The ref should have called a time-out immediately and given Ryan a stern warning about turning his back and using the straight-arm tactic because it was cheating on his part.
“All in all, Ryan landed his signature shot, his left hook. I knew he was going to land that shot sooner or later once Duarte wore down a bit. But good performance, not a great performance, and a great finish by Ryan Garcia,” said Bradley.
“[Ryan] was turning his back like a scardey cat. That’s what scared people do. Ryan has done that in the past. He’s done that in the past in certain situations, and it was always under pressure.”
Ryan looked frightened by the heavy shots that the slow, plodding Duarte was hitting him with, and it appeared that the only thing he felt he could do was turn his back.
That was 100% surrender on Ryan’s part, but the move was allowed by the referee, and it ultimately helped him when the fight. Duarte could only land his shots at a small target area without being warned, which gave Ryan a huge advantage in the fight.
“Now, the next step for Derrick James is to try and get him out of that bad habit because the pressure is going to come. That’s how you beat Ryan Garcia. Pressure, pressure, pressure. If you can avoid any of his kill shots and get inside,” said Bradley.
It’s a hopeless that Ryan Garcia can be improved
It’s unlikely that Ryan’s trainer, Derrick James, will get him to stop turning his back, as this move seems to be hard-wired into his brain at this point in his career.
Ryan has been using that same move for years. It’s still there and it could get worse when he starts facing top 140-pounders like Subriel Matias, Teofimo Lopez, Regis Prograis, Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero & Devin Haney.
Top 140-pounders would destroy Ryan Garcia
“You can rough him up and pound him down to the body, and you can get him in that kind of position; you can beat him. It’s that simple,” said Bradley about Kingry. A guy like [Subriel] Matias would murder Ryan Garcia. A guy like Regis Prograis would murder him.
“I would go as far as to say Devin Haney because we’ve seen Devin Haney march forward and put pressure on guys, too. So, is Ryan Garcia a player at 140? One guy, one champion he can beat, and that’s Rolly Romero, and he called out the weakest link,” said Bradley.
It’s a given that Ryan would be reduced to meteor dust by the top fighters at 140, and Golden Boy would have failed him if they were to put him in with any of the best top 10 fighters in the division.
Nightmare opponents for Ryan Garcia at 140:
- Subriel Matias
- Teofimo Lopez
- Regis Prograis
- Shohjahon Ergashev
- Arnold Barboza Jr
- Gary Antuanne Russell
- Sandor Martin
- Devin Haney
- Richardson Hitchins
- Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero
Ryan isn’t ready for any of those fighters, and it’s uncertain if he ever will be. Ideally, Golden Boy should put Ryan in the best cash-out fight they can against Devin Haney, Teofimo, or Gervonta Davis and then pick up the pieces left of him afterward to begin another salvage mission.
“I don’t know if he can beat him, Tim,” said Paulie Malignaiggi, casting doubts about whether Ryan can beat Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero. “Rolly has got hands. Rolly can punch a little bit. Rolly will make you uncomfortable.
“Rolly is a legitimate world champion. He has a major world title in a tough weight class, in a weight class full of talent, and that’s not easy to do. He can punch a little bit.”
“That old man [Ismael Barroso] was whipping his [Rolly] behind,” said Bradley.
Rolly obviously looked terrible against the 40-year-old Ismael Barroso last May, but even at his worst in that fight, he was considerably better than Ryan.
The way that Rolly fought in that fight would have been too much for Ryan, because he was hitting Barroso with huge shots, which the old guy took well.
If you put Ryan in place of Barroso that night, Rolly would have had a field day against him, hitting him at will with his heavy shots, and not letting up when he would turn his back on him.
“Ryan Garcia is basically Oscar De La Hoya if Oscar was retarded,” said Malignaggi. “But in reality, he’s not as good as Oscar De La Hoya, but he’s got to get better. He’s got the looks, he’s got the physical presence.
“He can be the lady’s guy. He’s got money. He makes headlines. Stop with the shoulder roll crap. You’re not Floyd.”
Malignaggi is hitting below the belt with his calling Ryan a “retarded” version of De La Hoya, but he is an uncoordinated, clueless version. If you remove these elements from De La Hoya, you’re left with Ryan: Courage, two-fisted power, right hand, defense, and a willingness to fight.
Rolly Romero = Ryan Garcia’s only path to world title at 140
“That’s his only path to get a world title. The other guys that have the belts. You got guys like Matias, Devin Haney, Prograis, and Teofimo Lopez. Ryan is not at that level,” said Chris Algieri about Ryan Garcia’s only hope for winning a belt at 140 is to challenge WBA light welterweight champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero, the weakest link among the four champs. “Not that he won’t get there, but he’s certainly not there right now. He showed that this past weekend.
“Rolly isn’t at their level either, so that fight [with Ryan] does make sense. It is a path to a world title for Ryan, and it’s a winnable fight. I don’t think it’s a walkover by any means. I think Rolly has a good chance to win that fight because of his physicality.”
Provided that he’s able to come back from his medical problem, whatever that is, Rolly Romero (15-1, 13 KOs) would be a big problem for Ryan Garcia because this guy can punch, and he has far better size, speed & offensive skills than we saw with Duarte last Saturday.
It’s safe to say that if Ryan turns his back on Rolly, he will finish him off with shots to his flank and to his head that would end the fight. Moreover, it’s unlikely that another referee would allow Ryan to turn his back repeatedly during a fight with Rolly or any champion. What are the odds of another referee allowing that tactic? It’s slim.
“The kid is tough, and he fights physically. He launches himself against the ring and pushes guys over,” said Aligeri about Rolly. “That style could give Ryan trouble, especially if he’s not able to stick to the jab.
“De La Hoya had a hard, piston-like jab. It was like a machine, and obviously, his hook was his knockout punch, but he always set it up. He had a jab first. If you give Ryan a jab, forget it. If he has a consistent jab, that kid would be hard to deal with,” said Algieri.
No matter how much time is put into developing Ryan Garcia, he’ll never have Oscar De La Hoya’s talent. Most fans only know De La Hoya as a promoter, but when he was young in the early part of his career, he was a terror. Ryan can’t be that kind of fighter because he’s missing the technical side of his game, and he lacks the killer instinct that De La Hoya possessed during his best years.
