Paulie Malignaggi has not been impressed with Ryan Garcia.
Super lightweight contender Garcia came back last weekend with a knockout win over Oscar Duarte Jurado, his first contest since losing to a killer body-shot from Gervonta Davis in April of this year.
Before then, Garcia had been building good momentum with wins over the likes of Javier Fortuna and Luke Campbell but had also had a spell out of the ring for mental health reasons.
Although he got the win, Malignaggi speculated on Paulie TV where Garcia might go next.
“Can he beat Teofimo Lopez? Can he beat the winner of Prograis and Haney? Can he beat Rolly Romero who is the WBA champion? I don’t know man. As far as the physical ability, it’s all there but I don’t know if mentally this kid really wants to fight.”
He went on to justify that by saying he could have shown more in his most recent fight.
“This was a fight where you had the proper opponent in front of you where you could have made a real statement. You’ve been talking a good game.
“People have been waiting to see you back and the opponent, this guy was tailor-made to walk him into anything you want to talk him into – combinations, body shots, uppercuts, all kinds of creative punches cause he’s just going to walk in the front door, perfectly square.
“You have the entire repertoire to work on against this guy and I don’t know man, it wasn’t that kind of performance from Ryan Garcia.”
His final verdict pulled no punches.
“It was a little bit disappointing, especially after all of the talk and everything else. It wasn’t even really a stoppage, for me Duarte quit. The fight was not really beaten out of Duarte, he went down and was like I’m done.”
