A few years back when I first saw Ryan Garcia fight, I said this about the then-17-year-old:
“Ryan Garcia is a STAR….looks, hand speed, power, charisma, and cockiness. People are gonna love him or hate him. He will draw like free ice cold Pepsi on the Vegas Strip in July.”
I remember getting blasted by a few so-called boxing experts because of that assessment.
And, although Garcia has yet to become a superstar in the sport, I think everyone’s in agreement now that his tools for superstardom are no longer in question. He’s even got the perfect path to stardom, blessed with a bevy of bankable, name-building, legacy-building possible opposition in the 135-140 lb. weight range.
The problem when it comes to Ryan Garcia is…well…Ryan Garcia.
For well over a year now, the kid’s only delivered drama and fake fights floated to the media. And promises…lots of promises, slathered in after-the-fact excuses.
When “King Ry” got up from the canvas to stop Luke Campbell in January of 2021, we got a glimpse of what the kid COULD be. Everything that happened after that, though, showed us what he currently IS.
He pulled out of an interesting next-level bout against Javier Fortuna in the first half of 2021, citing mental health issues. He then pulled out of another next-level bout against Joseph “Jo Jo” Diaz Jr. with a hand injury that required surgery.
I get the mental health issues (although I guarantee you that a good chunk of boxing fandom does NOT). And hand injuries happen in this sport. What’s really off-putting is everything ELSE that’s been happening in and around the 23-year-old, an “everything else” that seems to be built on some very real character flaws in the young man.
As a matter of fact, that whole lost year after the Campbell win was a red flag for character flaws in Garcia. Putting the lost ring time aside, there was an almost compulsive craving for attention that saw him dump constant loads of BS on the public.
He floated out bogus stories of bouts with Manny Pacquiao, Gervonta Davis, and even Isaac Cruz. He boasted of comebacks that would never take place. He called out fighters he was never in a position to lay hands on. And, most recently, he turned a simple change of trainers into a weeks-long public drama that may have served to alienate the one man in his professional life, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, he most definitely does NOT want to alienate.
About three weeks ago, Garcia announced via social media that he would be leaving the trainer he shares with Alvarez, Eddy Reynoso, in favor of Joe Goossen.
Okay. No problem.
But then Garcia couldn’t leave well enough alone and had to go deeper into the reason behind the change. He claimed that Reynoso just didn’t have the time to train him properly.
Okay. No Problem. Let’s move on. Right? No.
Garcia’s claim drew a direct response from Alvarez, though, who is best buddies with Reynoso and has slammed Garcia’s work ethic and desire in the past.
“Eddy has all the time for all of the fighters,” Alvarez told ESNEWS. “You ask Oscar [Valdez], you ask everybody. If you’re disciplined and you have the time to put it in the gym and you train really good, Eddy is always going to be there with discipline too.”
“I’ve been with Eddy a lot of years,” Canelo added. “I saw that when a lot of fighters come to the gym, really good fighters, he has all the time. But if he saw you come today and train 20 minutes and then go…Then you don’t come for three days or four days, and then you say, ‘The next day, I come in at 12,’ and then you come in at 2, so you need to be disciplined, right?”
Again, Garcia wouldn’t leave well enough alone. He would come back with a cryptic social media message saying that the real reason for leaving Reynoso was not the REAL reason.
“The truth is that’s not even the main reason I (decided) to part ways,” Garcia wrote. “Canelo knows why, I’m just going to keep it to myself and focus on the fight I have.”
The difficulties surrounding Garcia have not been limited to the last 15 months or so. There have been multiple public dust-ups with promoter Golden Boy, both before and after signing a lucrative, multi-fight deal with the promotional company. There have been aspersions cast on his work ethic and willingness to pay his dues as an upcoming young star. His mental toughness has also been brought into question.
In the 100% verifiable black-and-white, his level of activity is very unbecoming of a fighter still developing his main stage chops. He only fought once in 2020 (a first round blowout of Francisco Fonseca) and once in 2021 (a seventh round TKO of Luke Campbell). By the time he enters the ring against Emmanuel Tagoe on April 9, he will have logged just eight live rounds in almost two-and-a-half years.
That’s a stunning run of nothingness, especially for a fighter who, admittedly, has been entirely out of the loop due to personal issues and injury for large chunks of that time and who has been criticized by some “in the know” for not exactly being a gym rat workaholic, anyway.
Inactivity…a wavering dedication to training…in-house bickering…non-stop social media posturing and ego building…living in a fantasy world where great things are always happening when, literally, nothing is happening. All of these things are real issues for a young fighter who, realistically, has barely even begun to touch on his full potential.
Ryan Garcia still has everything necessary to become a superstar in boxing. But, as we’ve seen many times in the past, HAVING the tools and making them work are two very distinct things. More and more, it’s looking like there’s a real risk of the young fighter’s personal flaws nullifying everything that he has going for him.
Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com