Lionel Thompson says Ryan Garcia should “get a job” or refocus on being a “YouTube sensation” after the way he performed in his defeat against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero last Friday night in New York City. Thompson states that Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs) looked like he was “walking on eggshells.” He says Ryan is just an “ordinary” fighter with nothing special about him.
Garcia looked nothing like a welterweight contender in his fight against Rolly (17-2, 13 KOs) for the WBA ‘regular’ welterweight title at Times Square in New York. In the second round, Romero dropped Ryan with a left hook to the head. From that point on, Garcia was unwilling o to engage and got increasingly less active as the fight went into the second half.
Punch Stats
– Ryan Garcia: 65 of 207 punches for 31.4%
– Rolly Romero: 54 of 267 for 20.2%
Garcia’s Retreat
“Rolly came out and dropped him and kept him walking on eggshells through the whole fight. He caught him with that good shot [left hook], and kept him in his shell,” said Lionel ‘Lonnie B’ Thompson to Pro Boxing Fans, about how Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero stunned Ryan Garcia early with a second-round knockdown and dominated the remainder of the fight last Friday.
Garcia was scared of being knocked down again after the second round, and chose not to take chances for the remainder of the fight. His main weapon, the left hook, is only useful at close range. He wasn’t going to take the required risks to get near enough to connect with that shot because it would have meant that he would have had to eat some of Romero’s power punches. Ryan didn’t want to do that.
“Everything Rolly did, Ryan backed up 30 feet,” said Lonnie B. “If he would feint, Ryan would jump out. I just wonder what Ryan’s trainer was telling him. If I were in his corner, I’d say, ‘Yo man, you’re throwing one jab and stepping out because you’re too worried about his power. Just double jab, straight right hand. You got to keep going at him. You can’t give him an opportunity like that and feint and hit you with bombs. You got to be on the attack.'”
Garcia doesn’t have right-hand power, as he never developed it like he did his left hook. His right hand is like a vestigial feature, like the arms of the extinct T Rex. It’s a useless appendage. So, all Ryan had was his left hook and that wasn’t enough for him to defeat Rolly, because he was terrified to throw it.
“Hats off to Rolly. Congratulations. He’s a three-time world champion,” said Thompson. “He did what he was supposed to do, and he won the fight. I think Ryan should get a job or be a YouTube sensation. Go back to that, because we see there’s nothing special about him. He’s just an ordinary guy. There’s nothing special about him. He’s just got a lot of followers.”
Garcia will likely push for the rematch with Devin Haney next and focus on cashing out in a final payday. He won’t take the rematch with Romero because he knows he’d lose and that would permanently mess up his hopes for a Haney rematch.
“I think boxing has flip-flopped. You can get a guy with not a lot of followers, and losses on his record that will give you a way more exciting fight and memorable fight than what these fighters gave and the money they’re making,” said Lonnie B about the fighters, Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia and Teofimo Lopez, on the Times Square card last Friday in New York.
Manufactured Fighters
Those three spoiled millionaires are fighters who have been maneuvered by their promoters to make them look better than they actually are. You can call them ‘Manufactured fighters’ because that’s what they are. Teofimo has already been exposed repeatedly, and he’s not capable of beating the top guys at 140 or 147. Haney, we’ve already seen, isn’t a top fighter at 147. He’s not capable of beating any of the champions at welterweight.
“These are the guys they say are the cream of the crop of the sport. These are the guys the promoters pick,” said Lonnie B.
