Eddie Hearn believes Canelo Alvarez would have helped unbeaten lightweight contender Ryan Garcia with his development if he’d shown some effort and stuck it out when the two trained at the same gym with coach Eddy Reynoso.
Canelo, a workaholic, was disappointed with the way Ryan wasn’t putting in the effort to train in 2021. The superstar Canelo felt that the 23-year-old Ryan was wasting his potential by coming to the gym, and he let the media know what he thought of him.
Canelo’s decision to go public with his thoughts about Ryan was likely a move to help encourage him to work harder, but it worked in reverse.
Perhaps feeling betrayed, Ryan (22-0, 18 KOs) chose to leave the gym, saying he wasn’t getting enough time with Reynoso. Joe Goosen now coaches him.
“I know that Canelo and Eddy [Reynoso] always felt that Ryan didn’t put the work in that a slot in that gym should behold,” said Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn to the Dazn Boxing Show.
“The thing you have to understand about Eddy Reynoso’s gym; It’s not easy to get in there and get the time of Eddy Reynoso, and it kind of comes with the blessing of Canelo Alvarez as well because those guys are so close.”
Canelo is Reynoso’s #1 priority, so anyone who trains at that gym will need to understand that they will have to work around the schedule those two have.
If the unproven Ryan Garcia thought he would get the same red carpet treatment that Reynoso gives Canelo at his gym, he was sadly mistaken.
At this juncture, it’s questionable whether Ryan will ever win a world title. To be sure, he’s popular on social media. Still, he’s not fought anyone elite level, and it appears to some that he’s just looking for a quick cash-out fight against WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis before he disappears from boxing.
“What I’ve learned about Canelo is he really wants to help people, and I feel like he would have helped Ryan,” said Hearn. “He would have been around in training sessions, and I think they felt he [Ryan] didn’t put the time back in. He had his own problems,” said Hearn.
Last year, Ryan was dealing with anxiety issues, which caused him to pull out of his scheduled July 9th headliner against Javier Fortuna.
Ryan has now taken care of that problem and is facing Fortuna this month on July 16th on DAZN at the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles.
Whatever credit Ryan would have gotten for fighting the 33-year-old former WBA super featherweight champion Fortuna last year is gone because Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz beat him. It now looks strange that Ryan is fighting Fortuna because he’s getting him after a loss to Jojo.
