Boxing analyst Tim Bradley predicts an easy victory for unbeaten WBC light welterweight champion Devin Haney, taking the “limited” Ryan Garcia to school on April 20th in their headliner at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Bradley says we could see Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) “step on the gas” and go for a knockout of Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) if he’s dominating the fight the way he sees him doing.
Tim views Ryan as a one-dimensional fighter with just a left hook and not much else. He says Ryan is trying to develop his right hand, but thus far, he’s not been successful.
The “Turn Your Back and Hope” Defense
Tim feels that the 25-year-old Ryan is too limited and will need to show much more improvement in his game than the ones he displayed in his victory over lightweight Oscar Duarte last December.
In that fight, Ryan revealed a new variation of the shoulder roll: He would turn his back to Duarte to avoid getting hit in the face.
The problem was that he was vulnerable to getting hit in the back of the head. Interestingly, the referee warned Duarte about hitting Ryan in the back of the head when he would turn his back to him using his shoulder roll, which gave Garcia an advantage in the fight.
Ryan won’t be able to count on the referee protecting him, in the same way, against Haney if he chooses to turn his back to him with his flawed shoulder roll.
If Ryan’s trainer, Derrick James, has done his job in camp, he’ll ensure that he’s ironed out his use of that tactic and polished it for the Haney fight.
Can Garcia Even Go the Distance?
“A boxing lesson. Devin got the better jab, the better movement, well-schooled, and IQ a lot better,” said Tim Bradley to Tru School Sports, discussing his thoughts on the Devin Haney vs. Ryan Garcia fight on April 20th.
“Garcia is limited, we already know. He’s trying to develop his right hand with Derrick James. His left hook is his bread and butter. If you take that away, what else does he have? I know he has that little shoulder tuck; turn your back, roll.
“I think he’s going to be using that a whole lot. Don’t be surprised if Haney steps on the gas and tries to go for the knockout to try and get him up out of there. Ryan, to me, still doesn’t know how to fight a complete fight. He doesn’t know how to stay focused all the way through.
“Against [Oscar] Duarte, he did show some adjustments. I’ll give him that. He did show some adjustments in that fight, with one being that little shoulder roll thing,” Bradley continued about Ryan Garcia. He showed a better jab; I’ll give him credit for that.
“Anyway, he’s going to have to be more than that because you got a guy like in Haney, who can make so many adjustments, and he makes the adjustments on the fly, bro,” said Bradley.