Coming off of his 7th round stoppage of the very game Luke Campbell(20-4), the 22 year old Ryan Garcia(21-0) now finds himself near the top of a very loaded ligtweight division. During last nights fight, Garcia showed great composure in having to pick himself off of the canvas after getting knocked down by a Campbell left hook.
The question was then, how would the young kid react after getting knocked down for the first time in his young career. Well the kid passed with flying colors as he picked himself up and stuck to his game plan to continue punching and ended up stopping Campbell with a perfectly placed left hook liver shot.
And now as the dust settles, fight fans are already starting to bang the drums for Garcia to face Gervonta ”Tank” Davis(24-0), who happens to be a devastating bone crushing puncher. Well as for me, I personally would be in no rush to face that kind of heat for my fighter if I am his matchmaker. Even though Garcia was able to dig deep enough to stand back up after getting knocked down against just an ok puncher, against a harder punching fighter Garcia may not be as lucky.
So if not against Tank, who would I like to see get the call to face the young hard punching contender? Here are five fighters that should get a serious look to face Ryan Garcia next.
Jorge Linares(47-5)- Linares would be the perfect opponent for Garcia in the sense that Linares can box extremely well but like Garcia, Linares is just flawed enough to give Garcia another stern test.
Javier Fortuna(36-2-1)- The southpaw Fortuna is a slick boxer that will force Garcia to get creative with his punch selection due to Fortunas tricky boxing style.
Alberto Machado(22-2)- Like Garcia, Machado is a very good puncher/boxer and for this very reason a Garcia vs. Machado fight would be a very exciting one.
Isaac Cruz Gonzalez(20-1-1)- If Garcias team is serious looking to match Garcia in against the hard hitting Tank Davis later this year, then Gonzalez would be a very good test for Garcia. At 5’4” or 5’5”, Gonzalez is Tanks same height and nearly punches as hard as Tank.
Richard Commey(29-3)- I feel a clash against Commey would be a very exciting shootout due to the fact that Commey always comes to fight and like Garcia, Commey is not shy about exchanging shots with his opponent.
(Photo Courtesy Of Sky Sports-Tom Hogan Golden Boy Promotions)
