Ryan Garcia answered the important questions.
“King Ryan” got up from a second-round knockdown – the first of his career – to stop Luke Campbell with a left hook to the liver in the seventh round of their scheduled 12-round lightweight bout Saturday night at America Airlines Center in Dallas.
Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) entered the fight with a tremendous following. Now, after overcoming adversity and beating an elite foe for the first time, he has the substance to go along with it.
And he can say he one-upped former champions Jorge Linares and Vasiliy Lomachenko, both of whom defeated the seasoned 2012 Olympic champion form England in title fights but were unable to stop him.
“I think I showed a lot of people who I am,” Garcia said afterward.
Garcia has been the subject of considerable hype and the pressure that goes with that, particularly for a 22-year-old with limited experience. He has around 8 million followers on Instagram and a string of impressive victories. However, his opponents had been obscure.
That led everyone to ask: “Can he do the same thing against a legitimate threat like Campbell?”
Well, for a few dramatic seconds in the second round, the answer appeared as if it might be “no.” Campbell (20-4, 16 KOs) about halfway through the round landed a perfect left hook to the chin, which knocked Garcia down and onto his side.
Garcia said afterward that he was “dizzy” as a result of the shot but he didn’t look it. He got up, weathered a tame effort from Campbell to the finish the job and was in good shape when the bell rang.
“I wasn’t going to let anything stop me,” Garcia said. “Even when he dropped me … I got up. It was a good shot. I was cold and he dropped me. I was like, ‘I got dropped. This is crazy.’ I never got dropped in my life. I think I got a little too excited in the moment. I just felt like I could crack him but he cracked me. So I had to adjust and say, ‘OK. I have to calm down.’
“I knew I could beat him. I just had to get right back up and show everybody what a warrior really is.”
Garcia, still confident, was the aggressor from the third round on. He threw power shot after power shot in a controlled manner. Most were blocked by Campbell, a capable boxer, or missed the mark but some got through.
Meanwhile, Campbell boxed well on his back foot. Jabbing to the head and body, countering Garcia effectively at times and landing some heavy shots to the body.
Garcia seemed to stun Campbell in the final seconds of Round 5, when he landed a left hook to the temple. However, he seemed to recover quickly and held his own in the following round and early in Round 7.
The end came suddenly. Campbell evidently was bracing for a left hook to the head but Garcia crossed him up and directed it to his body. It landed directly on his liver, which put him down on one knee and then all fours as he tried to make sense of the pain.
He simply was hurting too badly to beat the count of 10 and the fight was over. The official was 1:58.
The moment Garcia realized he had recorded his biggest victory he broke into tears. Perhaps it was the break-through he had just orchestrated. Perhaps it was the “interim” belt he won. Perhaps it was the pressure dissipating into the ether.
It was probably all of the above. After he got past his emotional moment, he jumped into the arms of everyone in the ring who is close to him. That included stablemate Canelo Alvarez.
“I fought a gold medalist,” Garcia said. “… Pound-for-pound at the time Lomachenko couldn’t stop him. Linares dropped him but couldn’t finish him. I showed today that I’m special.”
If Garcia had a bright future before the fight on Saturday, now it’s blinding.
Who’s next? It’s clear he wants Gervonta Davis, the big-punching 130-pound titleholder who also holds a secondary 135-pound belt. He and Garcia have called each other out. Garcia’s also open to fighting another secondary titleholder, Devin Haney, who was in the arena in Dallas.
“One thing is that I’m a man of my word,” Garcia said and then began to bellow. “Let’s go Tank! Let’s go Tank! I’m ready! Let’s go!” He then stopped and added, “I see you Devin. … I want to fight him too. I want to fight everybody.”
And they’re going to want to fight him more than ever after Saturday night.
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