Ryan Garcia has no worries about his fight this Saturday night on January 2nd against Luke Campbell in their Golden Boy promoted card on DAZN at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
The much younger 22-year-old unbeaten Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) says he doesn’t feel pressure ahead of the biggest fight of his career against 2012 Olympic gold medalist Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs).
Garcia’s confidence is off the charts, and that could be his undoing against the 33-year-old Campbell. Ryan could be talking into his first defeat if he doesn’t proceed with a caution against Campbell.
The Golden Boy promoted Ryan has already gotten lucky once in his short four-year career with his fight against Carlos Morales in 2018. Ryan has got to be better for him to beat Campbell.
The World Boxing Council will have their interim WBC lightweight title on the line for the Garcia vs. Campbell match. This fight is to determine the mandatory for WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney.
Ryan isn’t excited about fighting Haney, who he views as a “boring” match-up for him, which is why he says he’ll save him for last after he faces Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, Teofimo Lopez, and Vasyl Lomachenko.
Ryan wants to do something amazing
“I just see the man staring back at me with eyes, said Ryan Garcia to Fighthype when asked what he saw during his face-off with Campbell during Thursday’s final news conference.
“I don’t take anything from stare offs; I don’t take anything from press conferences because nothing matters unless you get in the ring.
“That’s where the truth comes out. I know Luke is going to come to fight. It’s going to be a fight for the people, and I can’t wait to show what I can do.
“It was weird,” Ryan said about being separated from Campbell by the glass. “I wish we could have been faced to face. I don’t feel any pressure.
“I know there’s a lot of pressure surrounding the fight. But pressure is what makes you into a star. So the more pressure, the better it is for me because I have a chance to do something amazing,” said King Ryan.
What would be amazing is if Ryan Garcia knocks Campbell out early. No one has stopped Campbell before during his seven-year professional career, and he’s been in there with Lomachenko, Yvan Mendy, and Jorge Linares.
Garcia’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya, says he’d rather see him knockout Campbell in the 8th or 9th round, as that would give him more credit from the boxing fan.
If Ryan stops Campbell early, the fans will say that he caught him cold when he wasn’t warmed up, or he caught him cold with a good shot.
Any win for Ryan would obviously be a big deal, but he must make it conclusive without controversy.
Ryan doesn’t need to win a series of controversial decisions and looks like he’s being given wins based on his popularity.
Garcia sees a knockout as a possibility
“If you look at the facts of the fight, who did he deserve to fight Jorge Linares?” said Garcia about Campbell. “I didn’t see him fight anybody.
“He fought Jorge Linares, but he did that at 30-years-old. I’m fighting him at 22.
“So him and I are not the same, and right there shows that I’m 22 and fighting him. We’re not the same. I’m always looking to set-up traps, but if the knockout doesn’t come, I don’t really care.
“I’m ready for a whole 15-round war. It could be dangerous or not dangerous. It depends on what he does. If he feels my presence, he might not want to shoot the shot, and I might have to take it to him.
“But we don’t know until we get in the ring. It’s really up to him because I know what I’m bringing. Luke has been caught and dropped by Yvan Mendy and even Linares to the body.
“So he gets dropped to the body and head, so there’s a lot of possibilities here. You don’t know what’s going to happen.
“I personally think so,” said Ryan Garcia when asked if he thinks he’s the most devastating puncher that Campbell will have faced during his career.
“I got precision; I got timing; I got power. Power isn’t so much about how hard you hit. It’s about if you know how to hit,” said Ryan.
With the kind of punching power that Ryan has in his left hook, a knockout of Campbell is definitely a possibility.
Ryan has knocked out his last two opponents in the first round, which is very impressive. However, the fighters Ryan stopped, Francisco Fonseca and Romero Duno, were fringe-level fighters with limited talent.
The one good opponent Ryan has fought during his career, Carlos Morales, arguably beat him in 2018.
Jorge Linares showed the fans the difference between him and Ryan when he knocked out Morales in the fifth round last February. Linares dominated Morales in every round and made it look easy.
That fight showed how far away Ryan is from the top-level fighters in the division. Ryan will need to fight a lot better against Campbell than Morales if he wants to be viewed as a serious option for Tank Davis.
Boxing fans won’t be able to take Ryan seriously if he struggles to beat Campbell and goes into the fight with Tank.
Campbell’s southpaw stance doesn’t worry Ryan
“There’s a difference there. It’s not about brute strength. It’s about timing too. A southpaw is no problem. I’ve been seeing my little brother as a southpaw for years. I mean, I know the angles on a southpaw. It’s just another day.
“I have experience with that. With Texas, that’s different. I already love the atmosphere with my Texas fans on Twitter. I see it all over on social media. It’s amazing. He [Campbell] said in the beginning [of the promotion] that my fans won’t be there for me. We’ll see,” said Ryan Garcia.
Ryan will need to make sure he doesn’t let Campbell tag him too often on Saturday. He’s got good power. Not much has been said about Campbell’s ability to punch, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he knocks out Ryan.