Undefeated superstar Ryan ‘KingRy’ Garcia (22-0, 18 KOs) weighed in at the light welterweight limit at 140 lbs, and his opponent Javier Fortuna (37-3-1, 26 KOs) weighed in at 139.8 lbs on Friday’s weigh-in for Saturday’s main event on DAZN at the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles.
The weight for the fight was moved up from 135 to 140 due to Fortuna needing it to be adjusted because he came into camp heavy.
The 5’10” King Ry Garcia towered over the shorter former WBA 130lb champion Fortuna during their face-off, and the two looked at division apart despite both guys coming in close to the same weight.
Ryan, 23, must win and look good in doing so for him to lock himself in position to take on WBA secondary 135-lb champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis for later this year.
What we saw from Ryan in his timid performance in his last against little-known fringe contender Emmanuel Tagoe won’t be good enough to create interest in a fight between him and Tank Davis.
Ryan has got to do a lot better than that to get boxing fans excited about him taking on the undefeated Gervonta on pay-per-view.
What Ryan needs is an early knockout of the 33-year-old Fortuna like the one we saw from KingRy’s first-round knockout wins over Francisco Fonseca and Romero Duno.
It could be risky for Ryan to load up on wild left hooks against an experienced fighter like Fortuna because this guy has good pop in his punches, and he’ll drop him if he gets reckless like he was against the light-hitting Tagoe & Luke Campbell.
“I want to see him be offensive tomorrow,” said Shawn Porter to Fighthype about Ryan Garcia in what’s wants to see from him against Javier Fortuna.
Weigh-in results
Ryan Garcia 140 vs. Javier Fortuna 139.8
Alexis Rocha 146.6 vs. Luis Veron 146
Lamont Roach 129.8 vs. Angel Rodriguez 129.2
Ricardo Sandoval 111.8 vs. David Jimenez 111.2
Oscar Collazo 105 vs. Victorio Saludar 104.2
Diego De La Hoya 126 vs. Enrique Bernache 125.2
Miguel Gaona 138.6 vs. Abdiel Padilla 136
“The counter punch is great [Ryan Garcia]. That’s his thing, but I want to see what you and Joe [Goosen] have been working on or if this was just a move that you thought was good for you.
“This being his second fight [with Goosen]. He got the kinks out in his previous one against [Emmanuel] Tagoe. He should be ready to go tomorrow night, and we’ll see exactly what it looks like.
“I believe it should be a new version of Ryan Garcia. We’ll see tomorrow,” said Porter.
“A lot of your tricks and your counters work, as a right-hander, against right-handers because the majority of the guys you fight are going to be right-handers,” said trainer Joe Goosen to Fight Hub TV about Ryan Garcia training with southpaws during this camp.
“The majority of the guys that you’re going to spar are going to be other right-handers. Conversely, left-handers mainly spar with right-handers. Left-handers mainly fight right-handers, so there’s a distinct advantage there if you understand that dynamic.
“So when a right-hander fights a left-hander, you have to scramble now to do what you normally don’t do in the gym, which is spar with left-handers. So you have to bring in left-handers, and then you have to bring in quality left-handers.
“You have to bring in a number of them if they don’t last, which they don’t with Ryan. This was the incredible thing. Ryan was a one-man wrecking crew with southpaws.
“He knows how to fight a southpaw, but still, after about a week or two of sparring with southpaws, you could see the metamorphosis of doing well against them to just totally dominating them in the gym.
“So for all the respect that I give to Fortuna, I really feel, on top of what I just said to you about Ryan’s forte and his effectiveness against southpaws, especially as he built over the two months of sparring with them, it’s his power,” said Goosen.
