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Contact Innovator today at Innovate dot Ie Innovate the IT Solutions People. I'm pleased
to bring in my special guests. Now you all know him. He's got
a huge fight coming up April twenty second against your Bata T Davis at the
Temobile Arena in Las Vegas, live on a showtime pay per view. It
is the Big Star, Ryan Garcia in his first headline big pay per view
fight. Ryan, thank you so much for joining me today. I really
appreciate I know you're busy, got got the fight coming up in the NATO
distant future. How's everything going getting ready for the big one? Man?
Everything's great. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate you. But
yeah, man, everything's going great in camp. I feel good, feel
strong, and honestly, everything is going as good as it could go for
sure. I'm glad to hear that. I wanted to start off by by
talking a little about the evolution of getting this fight made, because that was
such a big, big part of the build up to this fight. You
know, I know from our previous conversations going back well before this fight was
made, just how badly you wanted this not just any big fight. Do
you wanted this big fight? You You've been calling out and talking Tank Davis
his name. I want to say, it's got to be at least a
couple of years at this point. And while he didn't necessarily I don't.
I never felt like he was trying to avoid you. It wasn't like top
of his mind. You weren't like the first name out of his out of
his mouth, or first on the tip of his tongue when it came to
what his big fights were. So when when the fight was made, I
feel like you kind of I mean, he had to go along with it.
Obviously you're both going to be in the ring, but you kind of
willed this fight into existence. As the way I've looked at it. Can
you just describe to me what it was about him and this fight specifically that
you were just you know, weren't gonna say no, We're gonna take no
for an answer. Well, I just always envisioned that this would be my
first huge fight that I would have in my career. This would be the
moment that could define my career, like the first moment that could define my
career. And I've always kind of chased that because inside, I just had
an intuition that I knew that this would be the fight, and he knew
it too. He said it like a long time ago, and he felt
the same thing, and I guess through time. You know, he obviously
didn't want to use anybody's name. I think that's a tactic of his.
He doesn't say any name. But for me, I just was so hungry
for this that I was always advocating to make this fight happen. You know.
Obviously, not only did I want it to happen, the fans wanted
it to happen. Everybody wanted it to happen. I mean all my comments,
you know, when you get to fight Tank. So I kind of
already knew that this was where it was going. And yes, I willed
it to happen, because again it's not that he was avoiding, but they
made it very difficult for me to say yes. So I mean you could
look at it at two ways, you know, they could look as you
know, they want to be you know, they want to have a stronghold
over me, or they really did want to avoid me. We'll never know,
But all I know is I never gave him a reason to say no.
And now we're here and I'm ready to go. So when you were
going through all of that, besides trying to work and get things done with
his team, not to say that your side didn't want to do the fight,
but it was complicated, you know, broadcaster issues, different promoters,
that it felt like maybe there were times where you and your own people were
kind of not necessarily on the same page in terms of moment moving forward with
this fight. How it's hard enough to make a deal with the other side,
How hard is it sometimes when you can't really quite get there with your
own people. Yeah, I mean it's difficult. It's difficult because, uh,
you know, you you know, longer feeling control of your career.
At times, you feel like, man, um, you know, I
really really want to happen, and everybody's discouraged, and you know, everybody
doesn't believe it's going to happen at times, and you know, you feel
like he wasted months and months, you know, of trying to make it
happen for no reason, and it really it really just uh, it really
had me down. I was like, man, this is ridiculous. Like
I didn't take a fight in October the way I wanted to, because you
know, the guys said I was going to fight in December, and it
was just a lot of things that I had to overcome mentally to just you
know, stay hopeful, stay hopeful that this is going to happen. And
you know, the stars align and ended up happening. But yeah, it
was it was pretty tough to to go through that. So you finally when
you got it agreed to. Then there was other things that were not necessary
problems making the deal. But he had his legal issues. Then he was
going to have it term fight. You opted not to have an interim fight.
So how how difficult was it to watch him go through the legal situation,
not knowing what's gonna happen, and then have a boxing match before that
and no, he's not only does he have to win the fight, but
he can't get injured, and you know how boxing goes, anything could happen
and you're just sitting idle not fighting. We a little was that never waking.
Yeah, definitely. Um, I didn't get too nervous, but there
was a level of concern of you know, is his legal problem is gonna
stop the fight from happening? I mean, what is this? Of course,
they they comforted me with the fact that it wasn't going to affect the
fight, so I was like, all right, cool. And then and
then when he was fighting Hector Garcia, I said, okay, I've seen
Hector fight. He shouldn't have caused taking any problems, but like you said,
anything could happen. That's the reason why I didn't take my fight,
because I was like, you know, I could hurt my hand where it
was like four to six, five to six months on the fight. I
mean, there's no way that I was gonna risk that name. Maybe he
can, but this means more to me than probably him, because I was
not risking it. How did you guys wind up at the one hundred and
thirty six pound catchweight because my thought was, you know, you're fighting your
last two fights close to one forty first one as a you know, acquiesced
to the opponent that couldn't make the weight. He has a belt, even
if it's a secondary belt. At one hundred and thirty five. Did you
have the thought of maybe let me go to thirty five and try to win
that belt. Was he wanting you to come down as low? Was he
willing to go up higher? Like? How'd you wind up in that number?
It's it's sort of a weird catchweight. Yeah, I never. I
never. He never told me that. They never asked to do one thirty
five. He keeps saying in these interviews that you know, I wanted it
at one thirty five. We started it, I believe at one thirty eight,
and then it started going down like just out of nowhere. He would
say, no, we gotta do you know, one thirty seven. Then
a week later, oh, we got to do one thirty six. That's
how it got to that number. And I said, man, like,
I'm not going anymore lower, like I'm just not like like you should have
said from the jump, let's just do one thirty five, you know.
But he didn't like if I'm going more and more down uh with that six,
you know what? Like I said, I'm not giving him a chance
out of this. I'm gonna do it, and um, I don't care.
I don't care. It's like my mentality is like I don't care what
anybody throws at me. It's not even just him, anybody. You know,
when I really want something, I find a way to make it happen.
And of course, you know I'm not dumb. I know I could
make the weight and I know I could be strong. Uh, just just
it's a it's just discipline. I've seen worse weight weight cuts than this,
and I've done worst weight cuts. I just don't like a guy's character like
that. Like you know, it's just it's just like I've already accepted so
many other things, and you keep on adding other things and other things,
like come on, man, at what point do you save yourself. Let's
just get it on already, like as real as a real fighter, Like
fuck, why are you looking for every advantage to me? That's that's my
mentality, and that's why I lost a little respect, Like come on,
man, like we're fighters, Like let's just get it on, Like stop
with this. You know I need every advantage in the book, so just
to fight. And Ryan, it wasn't just one thirty six. He also
you know you you both you both have to only go up a certain amount
of weight with the rehydration. Right, that's a two way right hydration clause.
But what seemed to be easier for him than you because he's been fighting
at one thirty five for the last you know, several fights exactly. Um,
that's another thing I was like, I mean like, I was just
disappointing. I'm like, oh my gosh, they're like, you gotta do
it. If you don't do it, they don't want to do it,
they don't want to fight. And it's just another thing I just sucked up
and I'm like, all right, let's go whatever, Like you don't on
me and fucking gained ten pounds to eleven. Fine, you know. The
only thing I wouldn't let them touch is my gloves or you know, type
of shoes I wear. But anything out, let's fucking go. But yeah,
I was just disappointed a little bit. I just thought to myself,
like, I don't know if you're terrified or is this just your your character,
like you just that's just how you are. But I would say it's
a it's a really big fight. And the one thing I find to be
different than your usual and you know, let's call it a run of the
mill big megafight is This is not a title fight, and most of the
biggest fights that we've seen in boxing typically are for a major world title.
This he has his belt, although not a you know, it's a secondary
variety. You're fighting at one hundred and thirty six, no belts at stake,
and to me as a fan, it's sure doesn't affect my interest in
the fight. I don't think it will affect the interest of most people who
want to tune in and watch your fight. But what I'm interested is here
you are in your career, twenty three and oh nineteen knockouts, you know,
probably not even yet into your prime at your age. I wonder how
how important is it to you to be a world champion. I mean,
you're gonna make a lot of money and have a big event, but you
don't have that that trophy, that belt, that that notch in the history
book to say I was the lightweight champ or I was the junior welterweight champ
at least not yet. How important is that to you? You know,
maybe a part of me maybe it is important to me, but I don't
know, I don't know how much important I feel like winning a gold medal
was felt way more important than me. I don't know, Like when I
was in the Amateurs, like that was one of my dreams. So you
know, beating Lou Campbell made me feel like a gold medalist, so I
really felt really happy there. But well, you also got an interim title
with that fight. Yeah, I guess, so right, I'm an interim
champion. Yes, No, uh, I think I think. I think
I think it is important to me. I think I'll be shooting for though
for for that soon. But again, I want to feel like a champion.
I don't want to feel like these guys that are collecting these belts,
like for example, I don't like I don't even like he did beat Pajars.
I'll give him that, but like all these other titles, like how
can you really call yourself a chamber? Who do you beat? You know
what I mean? What you guy would? That's not a champion? Dude?
Like that? You pretty much you were given about. Like let's look
at the truth. Let's not fucking I know the I know the on paper
it says this, but if you really look at it, you're not that
many champion, you know what I mean? I think about this Ryan,
you walk into to the Golden Boy offices. You know, you have a
meeting about whatever is going on, and you come across those beautiful glass cases
there and an Oscar, your promoter. Oscar Deloy had huge amounts of Negro
fights through his square, but he had a lot of world titles. And
do you ever like go in there and see the case filled that there was
what something like ten world title belts from a whole bunch of different weight classes,
six different weight divisions, and uh, I think you know, he
had these big fights, made that big money, had these huge events,
but he also got those belts, and you know that's something I haven't quite
gotten too yet. No, because I don't even look at the ones that
he won that really mattered, you know what I mean, that really meant
something like the fight that he won and you know he fought the best and
that made him a champion. Because that's just how my mind works. I
don't I look at the real truth of it, Like I don't. I
want to live for myself. If I had won the title from Lou Campbell,
right like, does that really make me a champion? Lomachenko won the
title for Lou Campbell, does that make like? Does that count like what
matters, you know what I mean? To me, it's who I beat.
That's just how I feel my heart. You know. Of course,
if I beat Deafen Hainey for all the titles, that's gonna feel like I
won a championship because I feel like he's one of the best, you know
what I mean. So to me, the opponent also matters. But that's
just my heart. I mean, maybe other people are different, but that's
just how I see things. The conversation continues in a moment, but first
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three. Oh so in the future, like you're gonna look to maybe fight
for a tenle whatever it goes on in April twenty second. Yeah, as
long as it's against a great fighter, you know what I mean, I
would definitely be I'm not a dance yo. If there's a title online now
you know you can't. Can't. So the one thing about this fight that
I keep hearing from their side, and I don't know if this is that
it's they're trying to down you or they're trying to like make you focus on
it or what, but it's all this stuff. But well, the only
weapon that Ryan Garcia has is that left hook of his, which is a
great left hook. But I've watched you know, you're fight your whole career,
and yeah, the left hook is clearly your best weapon. But it's
not as though you don't have a right hand also, or or other things
you can do with your left hand. Um, do you find that like
they're fearful of that and they want you to focus solely on it, or
do they think that they that you really do have holes in your game?
Like when you hear them talk so much about that one attribute that you have,
they don't talk about your hand speed or your size advantage or your work.
They just talk about the left hook. What is the deal there,
you think? I think I think they believe that's why only Uh yeah,
I think they're Yeah, I think they're underestimating me for sure. I think
they see me as some guy that they could just walk through. Um And
I think they think they believe that they just have to watch out for that
left hook as they're coming in, you know, as they're they're walking me
down. I think that's the real game plan because I know that when I
was in the amateurs, they thought to just pressure me, you know,
because of just my frame, you know. But it's it's I've evolved.
I'm sorry, I've evolved as a fighter, and anybody who's trying to pressure
me has gotten knocked out really early when it's came to do No. Anybody
who's like Fonseca, if you come at me, has gotten knocked out really
early in the first round, first or second round. So if he if
he wants to come at me early, and if he thinks I only have
the left hook, I really believe that he's gonna walk into something and it's
gonna be a very shocking moment for everybody. So if you have the left
hook in this fight and everybody knows that's your great weapon, what do you
view as his best weapon. I think some people might say it's his uppercut.
I'm not sure. What do you think when you see him? I
think his best attribute is his ability to sense punches as he's coming in and
encountering. I think that's his best attribute. So I have to be tricky
in my attacks. I have to, you know, not let him predict
any of my moves. So that's what I'm really working on, because I
think his best attribute is fighting on the front foot encountering at the same time.
That's just how I feel he fights best. I don't feel he fights
that good going backwards. People say, oh, he boxes, but yeah,
he boxed, but doesn't look that good. So anybody could bock a
box, right, I can move around, but he's gonna look that good,
you know what I mean. So I really feel like his best attribute
is coming forward encountering. He just has a good sense on what punches are
coming. So that's why I feel like he's best. All right, I
just got a couple more for you. This is your third fight with Joe
Dooson as your head trainer, and uh, you know, I've talked to
boxers over the years, and a lot of them will tell you it takes
you know, two or three fights at least to really sort of gel and
feel the most comfortable with what's going on in the corner. Um, this
is your third fight, so I don't know if you're quite there yet.
I would wondering what your thoughts are as far as where you think Joe and
you are. I know you work together years ago when you're amateurs, so
perhaps that was able to accelerate the gelling process. But how would you describe
that that working relationship you know, now that we've had two camps. Uh,
I'm pretty vocal, So if I'm uncomfortable with something, I'll let him
know. So we we've got into a great place where we know each other.
And honestly, he's just a great man to be around with. You
know, He's somebody that could have great conversations with deep conversations with um.
He has a lot of experience. Obviously, he's a Hall of Fame trainer
now and even before he had the Hall of Fame. I mean, look
how many years, fifty years or you know, however many he's been in
the game, not quite that many. He'll feel he'll feel old. If
you say fifty, I know, he'll probably saynything. He'd be like,
you know, it look good for some it look good. Uh you got
his shirt for fighting night? Is the question? H man? You know
what that's that's hiss about a billion uh Uh Jeane jackets, So he'll he'll
find one. He'll just probably close his eyes and picket. But uh,
but yeah, I mean it's been great. Uh and I'm ready to I'm
ready to do my thing. But yeah, with Joe, Joe's a great
trainer, it's gonna be good. You know. I'm I'm a smart guy
too. So that's the thing. Like, I'm gonna make sure it works
out. Whoever I'm training with, it's gonna work out great because we're gonna
figure it out together. Um. I'm believing collaboration, you know, and
just finding the best thing possible, you know, no ego involved, no
pride, just trying to figure out what what is the best training method or
you know what I mean. Um, So I feel like it's gonna be
great. Well, I know that winning the fight is obviously the big thing.
For both of you guys, getting a win in this big spot is
obviously huge, But how much more would it mean to you or how much
more do you want this to be the case? For you to win this
fight and do it buy a knockout. I think it's important that I make
I'm intentionally going in there to make a special moment that's important for me,
and I want to knock him out in front of the world that I really
do deep down on my heart. Yeah, wins great, but I've never
thought like that in my life, and I don't think I'm gonna start now
just because it's this fight. I'm coming in there with the intent to sleep
him. I mean, I want him to go to, you know,
night night in front of the world. So that's just how I'm sure he
wants that for me, but I'm not gonna let that happen. You figure,
if you're able to win or get a knock out either way, that
a lot of people that have downgraded you and say you're just a pretty boy,
you're just a social media guy, that by winning this fight with every
way it goes, that you'll finally get that that element of respect from a
large group of people that for whatever reason, don't respect you. Yes,
Yes, this is the fight to do it. That's why this fight me
so much. For me, it's big, It's bigger than just this fight.
It's just something I've been dealing with since I was a young boy.
So this has this has a lot of attached to it. I don't want
to lose this fight. I don't like I'm doing everything I could. You
know, I'm making sure that el Stone is unturned, like I'm making sure
I'm doing every single thing possible to win this fight. So I want this
more than anything I've wanted. All Right, I think that's a great place
to end it. Ryan, thank you very much for doing this, and
I wish you the best of luck in your fight and I'll look forward to
seeing you well fighting. Yeah, Dan, You're the man.