Bernard Hopkins says he wants to see Ryan Garcia fix his fighting style by moving up to 140 because he’s defensively vulnerable right now, as we witnessed in his loss to Gervonta Davis last weekend.
Hopkins notes that Ryan (23-1, 19 KOs) stands straight up, making him a tall target for the punches from his shorter opponents.
For Ryan to shorten his stance, he’ll need to strengthen his pencil-thin legs because he resembles a tall, skinny Blue Heron bird. Also, Ryan must hold his lead left hand higher and focus more on counterpunching rather than fighting aggressively.
The problems Ryan had taking Tank Davis’ punches will be amplified at 140, where many guys can hit as hard as him, if not harder, and they’ll take note of his weakness in taking body shots.
Some would argue that Ryan Garcia avoided all the killers at 135 to stay unbeaten long enough to get a cash-out against Tank Davis. Ryan can’t do that at 140 because there are too many hard punchers in the division that can do what Tank did.
“He still has to work on his defense, which needs to be tighter,” said Bernard Hopkins to Fighthype about what Ryan Garcia must change in moving to 140.
“I’d like to see Ryan fight at a weight he’s comfortable at without giving up anything to make [a fight happen] from now on. That’s a super fight or any other fight.
“It might not be that easy, and he might not be able to achieve that. I see what other people see. His defense has to be tight, and it’s not in his best interest to fight with his head up, leaving himself exposed.
“Those things cost him for this big moment [against Gervonta Davis], and they’ll cost him later. He’s still obviously young enough to come back. He still has fire in his belly.
“He was apologizing to everybody, and we let him know that he didn’t have to apologize to us. You know what you got to do. Are we with you? I am. Golden Boy is with you as well.
“I believe he has what it takes to put this behind him and become great one day. You’re not great now, so let’s work towards being that,” said Hopkins.
