Ryan Garcia will return to the ring in December following his first loss to Gervonta Davis earlier this year – and one man who’s guiding his career believes it’s the most meaningful fight yet.
At a tight catchweight of 136lbs, Garcia was felled by ‘Tank’ via a body shot in the seventh round of their successful Las Vegas contest.
Now set on competing at no less than the super-lightweight limit of 140lbs, he returns to the ring to face Mexican power-puncher, Oscar Duarte Jurado.
Speaking to FightHype, Bernard Hopkins – who promotes Garcia through Golden Boy alongside Oscar De La Hoya – said how he looks against Duarte should determine the shape of his career.
“I think Ryan Garcia should win this fight, and I would see how he looks in this fight, to make my personal decision whether he should fight again. Period.”
“Right now the question mark that I have in my head is what will he show in his head and heart come next month? It’s not what I think, it’s what he do for himself. Because I would tell any athlete it ain’t what I say or what the people think, it’s how I feel about you, to make you who you are.”
Hopkins – himself a two-weight world champion with a storied campaign – says his man must make a statement in his comeback bout.
“So Ryan’s got a statement to make next month. And I feel if he wants to grab and still keep the integrity, he still has the potential to be one of the great ones.
We ain’t talking about Instagram, social media, that don’t win fights. Matter of fact I think he lost a couple people, maybe thousands. But in the same talk he can get them right back.
It’s not how that last fight ended, it’s what he do now. The longer he stayed off, the longer it would take people to embrace him and love him like they did before.”