Comments Thread For: De La Hoya: Garcia Needed This Fight To Prove He Belongs With The Elite

[JakeTheBoxer]

Lol,, he beat the man that was never even a world champ. How you prove you are elite that way?

[Corelone]

I don't know if Ryan is elite, I just know he's trying to get there without a lot of tools. Power is good, but there's more involved. That was no love tap Luke hit him with, and I've seen Ryan touched up in sparring. I gave Luke a shot, because he can box, I can't help it his legs are shot, but Ryan will always be at that disadvantage. Ryan's defense is retreat, his offense is a punch, and not much in between.

[Liondw]

Garcia is certainly an exciting fighter, real box office, win or lose. He doesn't have the huge talent of his promoter Oscar, but he's a fine fighter. He's still a bit green and has to work on his defence, because if someone like Teofimo Lopez hits him with a big shot, it could be over.

[BoxingIsGreat]

Beating Campbell shouldn't get you beyond the C level. Campbell is a bum. Garcia looked fragile and uncoordinated throughout exchanges. Not the stuff of elite fighters. It told me more about Ryan than Campbell.

[THC]

I don't know if Ryan is elite, I just know he's trying to get there without a lot of tools. Power is good, but there's more involved.

He's definitely a work in progress. His power and speed have done the job so far. Deficiencies such as weak defense, lack of head movement, limited mobility can be addressed because he's young, but I question his ring IQ for the long term.

I'm also curious to see if he has an inside game. He won't be forced to go there against Haney. But Davis or Lopez will step to him. With his long range power nullified, I see Garcia folding under that type of pressure.

That said, I wasn't impressed with Lopez after the Nakatani fight, but then he goes and soundly beats Loma!

What I do know for sure is that the commentators on DAZN were dang terrible.

[Alan Smithee]

Garcia is a hype machine so far but he did show some grit last night. Can he hang with Lopez, Tank, or Haney? Who know but I would love to see it! The kid is exciting and that body shot was superb!

[whollisboxing]

Beating Campbell shouldn't get you beyond the C level. Campbell is a bum. Garcia looked fragile and uncoordinated throughout exchanges. Not the stuff of elite fighters. It told me more about Ryan than Campbell.

I guess everyone is a bum except the p4p top 10 then.

[whollisboxing]

Garcia is not elite and we will soon find out after he fights an elite fighter. Name one elite fighter Campbell has beaten. To be elite you have to beat an elite fighter. Luke was a good amateur and that is all he will ever be as a boxer.

Who is elite then? And how many fighters actually have wins over elite guys? If you wanna talk about the young lightweights and their best wins then Teo beat Loma and Richard Commey, Tank beat Leo Santa Cruz at 130, Ryan has the Luke Campbell win, and Haney is still looking for his big opportunity. So I ask again, who has a bunch of elite wins, besides guys who have been around for many years? Most guys have solid wins because there are only so many elite guys anyway

[1Eriugenus]

Luke Campbell is a top quality boxer so you gotta give Garcia credit. He hits like one MoFo! I mean Linares & Lomachenko couldn't stop Campbell & Ryan, essentially, did it twice. He had him in R5 & luke would have been stopped if the bell hadn't rung, then he finished in R7.
Also, Ryan proved he has heart & is a lot more than a instagram/youtube sensation by getting up from a heavy KD & prevailing.
Problems-he is still defensively lousy. I said before the fight that he holds his chin up & doesn't move his head. What I hadn't realised is he also tends to move in straight lines, which surprises me because that is usually only a fault of European fighters.
Definitely he's given Tank & Teofimo something to think about cos they know they can't walk in & take the shattering power Ryan Garcia got. Equally, they know if they can find their way in smart there is easy rewards there.

[NachoMan]

Oscar is white? Thought he was latino but what do I know. Besides you know Oscar has dropped a N-bomb on occasion.

White, caucasian, whatever. Latino speaks to his heritage, not his race. Latinos, like any other cultural group, come in all colors and races.