By Mark Eisner: Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) made easy work of former WBA super featherweight champion Javier Fortuna (37-4-1, 26 KOs) in stopping him in the sixth round on Saturday night at the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles, California.
Ryan dropped the 33-year-old Fortuna with a left hook to the head in the sixth. Fortuna then spit out his mouthpiece while on one knee, letting the referee know that he was done.
Fortuna was dropped in the fifth from a similar left hook to the head, and he was also down from a hard body shot in the fourth round. All in all, it was an overpowering performance by the 23-year-old Ryan Garcia tonight.
Undercard results:
- In the co-feature bout, welterweight contender Alexis Rocha (20-1, 13 KOs) defeated late replacement opponent Luis Alberto Veron (19-5-2, 9 KOs) by a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision. The scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 99-91. Boxing News 24 scored it 100-90 for Rocha. The Argentinian Veron, 29, was just looking to survive the entire fight, staying on the move constantly and throwing very few punches. Rocha stalked Veron around the ring, throwing mainly body shots due to his inability to land his left hand to the head of the elusive Argentinian. It’s possible Rocha suffered a hand injury because he was whispering to his trainer in the later rounds.
- Super featherweight contender Lamont Roach Jr. (23-1-1, 9 KOs) defeated Angel Rodriguez (20-2, 10 KO’s) by a 12-round unanimous decision in a WBA 130-lb title eliminator fight. The scores were 117-111, 116-112, and 116-112. Roach Jr chose to cruise in the championship round after building a big lead in the first half of the contest. The fight wound up being a dull one due to Roach focusing on boxing rather than entertaining the crowd by slugging.
- Flyweight contender David Jimenez (12-0, 9 KOs) defeated Ricardo Sandoval (20-2, 15 KOs) by a 12-round majority decision in a WBA 112-lb title eliminator. The scores were 114-112, 114-112 for Jimenez, and 113-113.
- Undefeated minimumweight Oscar Collazo (5-0, 3 KOs) cruised to a 12-round unanimous decision victory over Victor Saludar (21-6, 11 KOs). The scores were 118-110, 116-112, and 116-112.
- In featherweight action, Diego De La Hoya (23-1, 11 KOs) dominated and stopped journeyman Enrique Bernache (24-14, 12 KOs) in the fourth round to pick up his second consecutive victory since losing to Ronny Rios by a sixth-round knockout in 2019. The 27-year-old De La Hoya nailed the hapless 33-year-old Bernache with a blizzard of shots in the fourth, resulting in referee Ray Corona stepping in and pulling the plug on the contest. The time of the stoppage was at 2:51 of round four. It was another good victory for De La Hoya, but he needs to be fighting better opposition than this, given that he’s a nine-year professional. Fighting journeymen was fine six years ago, but it’s troubling for De La Hoya to still face this type of opposition nearing his tenth year as a pro.
- Undefeated lightweight Miguel Gaona (3-0, 2 KO) defeated Abdiel Padilla (1-3, 1 KO) by a first-round knockout. The 24-year-old Gaona dropped Padilla twice with shots to the body. The referee Jack Reiss counted out Padilla after the second knockdown. The time of the stoppage was at 1:20 of round one.
Preview
“Javier Fortuna will make your life a little difficult. He’ll try to make your life a little difficult, but I don’t think he’s at that level. His best weight is 130 lbs,” said Paulie Malignaggi on Paulie TV about Javier Fortuna being undersized to fight Ryan Garcia tonight.
Ryan Garcia expected to win
“He’s a solid opponent that brings something to the table paper-wise, but a guy like Garcia is supposed to beat him. If you’re only going to fight once a year, these are the kind of guys that you’re only going to be able to fight.
“Hopefully, he [Ryan] stays busy. He fought Tagoe, and now he’s going to fight Fortuna. After this, we’re going to need a bigger name. They’ve been talking about Tank and Ryan Garcia, but I highly, highly doubt we’re going to see that fight. I just cannot get myself to believe that.
“If I’m Oscar [De La Hoya], I’m starting to wonder if this guy wants to fight.
“You may as well take a chance on him now because if he was a regular prospect and he was a high level and was selling a lot, maybe you take your time going to the Tank fight because he’s a sure thing, and you’re going to try and use him.
“Because you don’t know where he’s going to go next. Is he going to box, do a commercial, if he’s going to become an astronaut, if he’s going to become a model, if he’s going to become an actor if he’s going to become?” Malignaggi said about Ryan Garcia.
“You don’t know what he’s going to do next. You may be inclined if you have him under contract to push him a little faster to get something out of him before the time runs out, or you lose him to another avenue of success he might have. He might just abandon boxing.
“So if I’m Oscar [De La Hoya], I do push the big money, the big risk fight now. If this fight [Tank vs. Ryan] doesn’t get made, I still can’t say it’s one guy’s fault or the other guy’s fault. Honestly, who has Tank Davis fought as well?” said Malignaggi.
KingRy needs to step it up
“The only difference between Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia is Tank Davis fights a little more often,” Malignaggi said. “But ultimately, we don’t know the guys he’s fighting either.
“The rankings in the organizations come down to how popular you are. The sanctioning bodies will start ranking you higher based on how popular you are because if you’re popular enough, they’re going to move you.
“If you keep winning, no matter who you’re fighting, they’ll move you up the ranks fast because you bring money to the table. If you bring money, you bring money to them too.
“I think there are a lot of hoops to jump through to see a [Tank] Davis and [Ryan] Garcia. The media are the biggest p****. Why not ask, ‘When are you going to fight somebody?’ ‘Do you really want to be a boxer?’
“Or with Tank Davis, ‘When are you going to fight somebody that we’ve heard of when you’re headlining these pay-per-view events. Why do we have to learn who your opponents are when we fight them?
“‘Why can’t we already go into a pay-per-view as it used to where a super fighter fought another super fighter. Everybody knew who both guys were, and it was pay-per-view because both guys were so known and they were head-to-head, you knew it was time to do a pay-per-view.’
“Now you got random guys doing pay-per-views fighting random opponents. Nobody asks that question because nobody wants to get their credentials pulled. It’s all about getting the credential, so you’re a kiss a**. You’re just a professional a** kisser. You’re not a media guy,” Malignaggi said.
Fortuna can make Ryan look bad
“We haven’t seen enough of Ryan besides the power to see the different levels, the different adjustments that he’d be able to make,” said Paulie. “I don’t think he has the fastest feet. So a little bit of range changing and mixing speed on the jabs and then off the faints.
“He hasn’t fought a very high level of opposition. Luke Campbell was a very good fighter, though. I’ll say that. That’s a solid win. I think it’s going to be a little bit of an awkward fight.
“Fortuna doesn’t give you a lot, and then all of a sudden, he throws some awkward shots.
“It’s not a great fight in terms of looking good. I feel he may stop Fortuna but get criticized for the performance. Fortuna is not a guy that’s easy to look good against. I also think Ryan isn’t the guy to get beat by Fortuna.
“Fortuna will randomly upset you and beat you and give you trouble because of his awkwardness. I do think that, ultimately, this is a win that Ryan probably gets. I just don’t know that he looks good doing it, and he’s going to get kind of criticized for it.
“I don’t think Fortuna is an easy guy to look good against for anybody. The boxing odds account for the fact that one guy will never get a decision anyway if it goes the distance,” said Malignaggi.
Will Fortuna get robbed?
“It’s fair [the wide odds in Ryan’s favor] because even if Fortuna wins the fight on points, he’ll get robbed,” said Malignaggi. “So, he’ll never get the decision, so you take that into account. So you looking at it now, Fortuna has to win by knockout in order to win the fight.
“I can remember me vs. Broner, for example. Broner was an 11:1 favorite, and I was like normal. I was betting on myself in all kinds of ways. Ultimately, when the decision came, I learned why he was 11:1 because he was never going to lose that decision.
“The WBA already sent his copy of the belt there. So, I learned something that night too, and also about the odds. Where does the boxing politics lie here? Can one guy get a decision against the other?
“Sometimes it actually plays out. I picked Bivol to get robbed against Canelo. I thought Bivol would best Canelo and not get the decision just like a couple of other guys that had fought Canelo had gotten, but on that night, Bivol did get a decision.
“Sometimes the politics do steer the other way, but for the most part, those odds are there because one guy can’t get a decision against the other guy no matter what.
Goosen a great trainer for Garcia
“I think he’s a good trainer. I think he’s very, very intelligent,” said Malignaggi when asked his opinion of Ryan’s new coach Joe Goosen. “I remember even in the corner, and I liked to watch him because he was very calm, he made his direct points, and they were direct.
“They weren’t confusing, and he always knew. When you would come back to the corner, I always noticed that he was the guy that knew what he was going to tell you, and he understood very well and understood how to give those instructions in a simplified yet very clear manner.
“I always liked that. When Corrales kept losing his mouthpiece before he knocked out Castillo, when they took him back to his corner, and they were washing out his mouthpiece, sometimes Goosen was as simple as, ‘You better f**** get him now.’
“It was crazy because Goosen was very astute and very smart in a lot of ways he delivered his information, but sometimes, he knew that he had to keep it simple and even more direct and just throw out all that extra mumbo-jumbo.
“I like Joe Goosen a lot, and I think he’s a smart guy. Plus, he always had a unique fashion style in the corner. He was always with the hair combed very nicely and always wearing the Hawaiin button-down shirts,” said Malignaggi.
Lightweight contender Ryan Garcia takes on the tough veteran Javier Fortuna tonight at 140 in what should be an entertaining fight on DAZN at the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles.
Ryan (22-0, 18 KOs) has a lot of pressure on him to deliver a victory in an exemplary manner by knocking out the 33-year-old Fortuna (37-3-1, 26 KOs) to get the massive money PPV slot against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis in December.