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Philippines, 30 Apr 2024 |
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The Garcia vs Haney Showdown: A Crossroads Fight By Ralph Rimpell PhilBoxing.com Thu, 11 Apr 2024  On Saturday April 20, 2024 former WBC lightweight interim champion Ryan “KingRy” Garcia (24-1, 20KOs) will challenge WBC Junior welterweight champion Devin Haney in what this writer believes is a “crossroad” fight. If Garcia, a top boxing contender, loses to Haney he likely will be viewed as just a social media star that boast a following of 10 million on Instagram and 5.6 million following on Tik Tok, and no longer will be viewed as a serious boxing contender. Garcia's presence on social media and a previous 23-0, 19KOs record resulted in a 1.2 million pay per view fight last April 22, 2023 when he fought and lost to the popular WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis. Since the loss Garcia has rebounded and won a fight against Oscar Duarte. If Haney loses to Garcia, it will likely take a him a couple of years to rebuild his career and no “big paydays” for the foreseeable future against fighters such as “Tank” Davis and Shakur Stevenson. So what does each fighter (Haney and Garcia) have to do to secure victory against the other? First what does Haney need to do? Devin Haney was a big lightweight (135lbs) and now a big Jr. welterweight (140lbs). After the official weighins before fights, 24hrs later Haney reportedly rehydrates 15lbs and looks like a Jr. middleweight (154lbs). Haney is a very physical fighter who uses in physicality against his opponents and not always his boxing ability first. Because there is reportedly no rehydration clause for the Garcia vs Haney bout, look for Haney by fight time to weigh at least 155lbs. Haney has said that Garcia quit against Davis (TKO in 7th round due to a body shot). Look for Haney to impose his physicality on Garcia to try and knock him out. When Haney could not impose his physicality on past opponent Lomachenko during their fight he had no choice but to box. Lomachenko was the superior boxer and at the end of their 12 round bout many had Lomachenko came up as the winner even though Haney was awarded the official decision. The punch statistics supported that - Lomacheko outscored Haney landing more punches. In Haney’s most recent bout against Regis Prograis it was a total physical domination. Prograis had the superior boxing skills, but he could not overcome Haney’s size. Haney must force Garcia to brawl so he can catch Garcia with good shots to knock him out or make him quit. What does Garcia have to do to win against Haney? This writer dares say that Garcia is the better skilled boxer than Haney. In order for Garcia to prevail against Haney he must fight a disciplined fight and follow his game plan. Garcia must not try to fight Haney as he fought Tank. Tank bided his time and set traps for Garcia as he came forward. He countered Garcia to score a knockdown and then later finished him with a body shot in the 7th round. Garcia must be in top condition to go a full twelve rounds with Haney. Garcia has to use his jab, throw crisp hard combinations, land his left hook, and use the entire ring. Garcia must not stay in the proverbial pocket too long. There will be times when Garcia will have to momentarily stand and fight to earn Haney’s respect so as to not allow him to bully him into submission. If Garcia can do that for a full twelve rounds he can walk away with a decision victory. This writer picks Garcia by 12 round unanimous decision victory. Boxing Notes The winner of Tszyu vs Fundora world title (WBO and WBC jr. middleweight) on March 30, 2024, which was Fundora by split decision, has been mandated to fight unified welterweight champion and “Pound for Pound” #1 Terrance Crawford. Both fighters sustained injuries (Tsyzu – cut to scalp and Fundora – Broken nose). There is talk of a rematch between the two because of a verbal agreement between the camps and the controversy with the unintentional foul to Tszyu caused by Fundora’s elbow. If an immediate rematch does not take place, and Fundora were to fight Crawford it would likely be in 2025. That much inactivity is not good for Crawford who generally likes to fight twice a year and last fought July 2023 when he defeated Errol Spence. Since “Canelo” has declined to fight Crawford, his two best options are to either offer Spence a rematch, who seems focused on Fundora, or to defend his unified welterweight title against IBF welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis. This writer believes Crawford vs Ennis with the right promotion could sell as much PPV as Crawford vs Spence... Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has gone on record that if a Promoter were to offer him $150million or $200million to fight David Benevidez the fight will happen. “Canelo” has to first defeat former WBO jr middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (43-0, 34KOs) on May 4, 2024. Benevidez has a tough opponent for his next match as he goes against former WBC light heavyweight Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Gvozdyk’s lone loss was to Light heavyweight King Artur Beterbiev. Before the loss Gvozdyk was the one who beat and retired Adonis Stevenson who ruled the light heavyweights. Benavidez Promoter Sampson Lewkowicz has said that now he knows Canelo’s price for the Benevidez fight in order to secure such a large purse. An extended promotional tour involving more cities will be needed and the fight could take place in November 2024, not September 2024. Let’s see what happens after May 4, 2004…Sean Garcia (Ryan Garica’s younger brother) who fights at lightweight and has a record of 7-0-1, 2KOs announced he will fight Amado Fernando Vargas 10-0, 4KOs (The son of boxing hall of famer Fernado Varga) on June 1, 2024. The two young fighters have been going back and forth on social media. I, as a boxing writer, think it’s a little too early for the two to fight. However, give these to young fighter all the credit in the world for agreeing to fight each other instead of padding their records. Hopefully they earn a nice payday and both can go on to win world titles and have good if not great careers after they fight each other. ***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history. "I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.  |
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