Trainer Abel Sanchez says Devin Haney would beat Ryan Garcia even worse than he did against Regis Prograis last Saturday night. Sanchez feels that Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) isn’t ready for a fighter like newly crowned WBC light welterweight champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) in terms of his technical skills and experience.
Abel says Ryan’s recent performance against Oscar Duarte on December 2nd, in which he struggled, looking “confused,” indicated that he’s not on the level of Haney, Shakur Stevenson, Regis Prograis, or Subriel Matias. Sanchez states that IBF 140-lb champion Matias would beat Ryan Garcia in an “ugly” manner, beating him badly.
The former trainer Sanchez feels that Ryan could become a big star if he’s marketed right, considering he’s got a tremendous following on social media with his 11 million Instagram followers, but he’s not ready for any of the top guys.
One fight Sanchez would like to see is Ryan taking on the recently stopped Shohjahon Ergashev, who is coming off a loss to Matias.
Sanchez feels that a fight between Ryan and the highly accomplished former amateur star Ergashev (23-1, 20 KOs) would be an excellent match-up. Golden Boy boss Oscar De La Hoya probably wouldn’t want to take the risk of making the fight.
The shots that Ergashev landed against Matias in the first two rounds of their contest on November 25th likely would torpedo Ryan Garcia, sending him down for the count. Ergashev landed a lot of scary headshots on Matias. If Ergashev hadn’t gassed out, he would have likely stopped Matias.
Haney too skilled for Ryan
“Devin Haney beats Ryan Garcia just like he beat Prograis,” said Abel Sanchez to Fight Hub TV. “How did Ryan look against his last opponent? [Oscar Duarte]. He looked terrible. He won, but compare Ryan’s performance against a guy that’s not on Prograis’ level to Devin Haney’s performance against Prograis.
“It was two different guys. They fought two different guys. Yeah, Devin Haney looked like a million dollars, and Ryan looked like a thousand dollars again, a guy that’s not on Prograis’ level. I’m not going to say that he’s [Haney] going to destroy him [Ryan], but he beats him because he’s more skilled. Ryan is not ready.”
Ryan looked more like a hundred bucks against Oscar Duarte, not a thousand. He looked terrible, turning his back on Duarte, cringing and needing to be saved by the referee. That fight showed that Ryan isn’t a top 15 level fighter at 140 and would be beaten basically by any contender at light welterweight.
“If Ryan is marketed right, the kid can make a lot of money because he’s got a lot of [Instagram, Twitter & YouTube] followers. You can’t let your ego get in the way. You’ve got to be marketed the right way, fight the right fights, and then when you have to at the next level, then you fight at the next level,” said Sanchez.
Ryan Garcia not ready
“He’s [Ryan Garcia] not ready for that level yet. He proved that he wasn’t ready for Tank. He’s definitely not ready for Haney, and he’s not ready for Shakur. Not against Tank, not against Haney, and not against Shakur, said Abel.
“Absolutely,” said Sanchez when asked if he views Haney vs. Ryan as the same one-sided affair as the Haney-Prograis fight last Saturday night in San Francisco. “It might be even more dominating. Ryan has a good punch and speed, but Ryan doesn’t have the same skill, experience, or ability as Prograis.”
It’s pretty obvious that Regis would crush a novice fighter like Ryan and destroy him with his power shots. Prograis couldn’t land on Haney because he was moving all night, keeping out of range, but Ryan would be standing in front of Regis and would get broken down.
“You’re talking about a world champion vs. a guy [Ryan] who hasn’t had that level of opposition, and he was confused when he fought Tank, completely confused,” said Sanchez. “He showed some confusion when he fought Duarte, and Duarte is nothing. I shouldn’t say nothing but Duarte is not on that level.
“I didn’t like the [shoulder roll that Ryan used against Duarte]. There are some fighters that are great at that, but that’s not something you can learn in one fight. At that level, you can’t change your style to that is 100% different than what it was before. He needs to go with what he does best.”
It’s weird that Ryan’s new trainer, Derrick James, allowed him to use the shoulder roll in the fight and didn’t stop him from using it in early rounds. It wasn’t until Duarte gassed out in the eighth that Ryan stopped using the shoulder roll and went on the attack.
“What he does best is he has some hand speed, he has a little power in his left hook, and he’s got youth,” said Sanchez about Ryan Garcia. “He does have a lot of ability to a certain ability. Not the Haney ability, not the Prograis ability. [Subriel] Matias would destroy him [Ryan], and knock him out so ugly that I would hate to see that fight,” said Sanchez.
