Jayson Velez believes in Ryan Garcia.
The Puerto Rican veteran is one of only three of Garcia’s 20 pro opponents who’ve gone the distance with the unbeaten lightweight contender. Velez, who lost a 10-round unanimous decision to Garcia in May 2018, has noticed numerous improvements in the 21-year-old Garcia since their fight.
“He’s more patient,” Velez told BoxingScene.com in advance of his 10-round junior lightweight fight against Oscar Valdez on Tuesday night. “He’s stronger. When he fought me, he was still like afraid of punches. He was closing his eyes. But right now, he’s very focused. Physically, you notice he’s bigger, he’s stronger, so he became better since we fought.”
Garcia impressively demonstrated some of what trainer Eddy Reynoso has taught him in back-to-back, first-round knockouts of Romero Duno (22-2, 17 KOs) and Francisco Fonseca (25-3-2, 19 KOs) in his past two fights. Velez envisions Garcia’s next fight, however, as the performance that’ll completely disprove doubters that insist the polarizing Garcia is more of a social media creation than an elite lightweight.
Negotiations are ongoing, but Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs), of Victorville, California, and England’s Luke Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs) are expected to fight for the WBC’s interim lightweight title sometime later this year. The WBC then could order its 135-pound world champion, Devin Haney (24-0, 15 KOs), to fight the Garcia-Campbell winner.
“People don’t realize how good [Garcia] is, but I know he will show to the world how good he is,” said Velez, who lost to Garcia by the same score, 99-91, on all three cards. “He will be fighting Luke Campbell. He will show to the world in that fight how good he is. It won’t be easy, but I think he will win.”
Velez respects Campbell’s skills, yet he is confident that Garcia’s youth and strength will be too much for the 2012 Olympic gold medalist.
“Ryan is like his nickname, ‘Flash.’ He’s really, really, really, really fast,” Velez said. “He’s stronger than people think, and he knows how to make adjustments in the fight. So, I think he’s a good fighter. He’ll have a great career. I think he will become a champion of the world.”
While hiring Reynoso has had an immense impact on his career, Velez feels their fight helped Garcia grow as well.
“I think when he fought me, he knew he needed more than just to throw punches,” Velez said. “He needed a plan. And he did it. He had to move, to grab me and do other things. It helped him a lot because I pressured him all of the fight, and he had to do different things.”
Meanwhile, the 32-year-old Velez (29-6-1, 21 KOs) has his own huge opportunity versus Valdez (27-0, 21 KOs), a former WBO featherweight champion. ESPN will televise their fight as the main event of a five-bout broadcast scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
