Ryan Garcia Has Long Way To Become Great Champ, Says Reynoso

Ryan Garcia has been making the rounds lately calling out every formidable champion and contender in the lightweight division.

Trainer Eddy Reynoso, who’s presided over the green Garcia’s coach for his previous four fights, believes that his promising 21-year-old pupil still needs a little bit more seasoning before being matched in mega fights.

“I would like a couple more fights, in the last three fights we have fought four rounds, he needs to learn more,” Reynoso told ESPN Deportes. “We are missing two or three fights, not because he cannot beat him right now, he can beat anyone, above the ring he can beat a champion, but to get more possibilities, more set in terms of learning and training, he lacks a little more experience and let’s see if this year can be done.

“As far as I am concerned as a coach, we have not beaten anyone; we have not won any world champion, we have not won any world qualifier … But I think we still have a long way to go to become a great champion.”

Reynoso, the 2019 BWAA trainer of the year, has cornered and coached just a total of nine rounds of live action — all stopages — with Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) ever since they became a tandem late in 2018.

The 135-pound Garcia is coming off back-to-back first round knockouts of Romero Duno in November and Francisco Fonseca in February.

Jose Lopez lasted just two rounds against Garcia in March 2018, while Braulio Rodriguez made it all the way to the fifth round before being knocked out.

The Victoriville, Calif.-based Garcia should have a solid Litmus test as to where his skills stand against former world champion Jorge Linares, the veteran opponent his promoter Golden Boy has pegged for Garcia once the boxing schedule resumes.

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist and member of the Boxing Writers Assn. of America since 2011. He has written for the likes of the LA Times, Guardian, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Men’s Health and NFL.com and currently does TV commentary for combat sports programming that airs on Fox Sports and hosts his own radio show in Los Angeles. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan or via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com.