By Manouk Akopyan
Between Mikey Garcia, Jose Ramirez and Vergil Ortiz Jr., trainer Robert Garcia has pay-per-view worthy fights at his gym in Riverside, Calif. once any combination of the three aforementioned stars start sparring against one another.
But Garcia doesn’t foresee any stablemates strapping on the gloves and officially squaring off against each other unless one of them one leaves the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy.
“They’re all happy. Unless one of them chooses to train elsewhere, and in the future, there’s a big fight, then it will happen,” Garcia told BoxingScene.com in an interview. “Things like that happen in boxing. When they’re all training in my gym, I don’t think they will fight each other.”
Like a parent choosing a favorite child, Garcia couldn’t say who is the best out of the bunch.
“All three are great at what they do, but different in their own ways,” said Garcia. “They are the best in their time right now.’
But he did offer high praise to one in particular.
“Vergil is the future of boxing,” said Garcia. “We don’t want to rush him, but he’s two or three fights away from fighting for a world title. He’s one of those kids who can easily be a world champion right now, but I don’t think he’ll get a title opportunity right now because all of the 147-pound champions are with Al Haymon or Bob Arum.”
Aside from Mikey Garcia’s (39-1, 30 KOs) one-sided loss to Spence Jr., it’s been a banner year for the trainers fighters. Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs) is 2-0 and coming off a terrific performance against Maurice Hooker and winning the WBO title. Ortiz is 3-0 and on the heels of a spectacular knockout of Antonio Orozco as he continues his development as arguably boxing best prospect.
Garcia believes Ortiz (14-0, 14 KOs) will get his crack at the title once he’s declared a mandatory challenger by one of the sanctioning bodies.
“Golden Boy has done a great job with him by picking the right fights for Ortiz,” Garcia said. “We have to wait for the right opportunity.”
Manouk Akopyan has been a member of the Boxing Writers Assn. of America since 2011 and has written for the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the Guardian and Philadelphia Inquirer. He can reached on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan or via email at manouk.akopyan@gmail.com.
