Oscar De La Hoya envisions Ryan Garcia handling Luke Campbell like none of the British southpaw’s previous opponents.
Garcia’s promoter predicted during a virtual press conference recently that Garcia’s uncommon combination of speed and power will be too much for the 2012 Olympic gold medalist January 2. Campbell battled Vasiliy Lomachenko in his last bout, but De La Hoya expects Garcia to conquer Campbell even easier than when the Ukrainian southpaw out-pointed him unanimously 15 months ago at O2 Arena in London.
The 22-year-old Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs), of Victorville, California, and the 33-year-old Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs), of Hull, England, will fight for the WBC interim lightweight title in DAZN’s main event from American Airlines Center in Dallas. Their fight was postponed from December 5 to January 2 because Campbell contracted COVID-19 and had to interrupt his training camp to fully recover.
“The one thing I like about Ryan, that he’s always in the gym,” De La Hoya told moderator Mario Lopez during the aforementioned virtual press conference. “He’s always training. He’s always focused. I mean, look, we see him on social media; he’s doing his thing. But when he trains, when he is getting ready for a fight, he’s a thousand-percent focused. So, that’s exactly why I feel Ryan Garcia can even stop him in the mid to later rounds.”
Campbell has not been knocked out in seven years as a professional.
Before Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) beat him by unanimous decision, he had lost only a pair of 12-round split decisions to former WBA/WBC lightweight champ Jorge Linares (47-5, 29 KOs) and Yvan Mendy (46-5-1, 22 KOs). Campbell defeated Mendy by unanimous decision in their 12-round rematch in September 2018 in London.
Garcia has scored first-round knockouts of Romero Duno (22-2, 17 KOs) and Francisco Fonseca (27-3-2, 21 KOs) in his last two fights.
“I think Luke Campbell, his fighting style is gonna be different because he has to deal with Ryan’s speed,” De La Hoya said. “OK? And Ryan is in a whole different category in terms of mentality and punching power and speed and footwork. He’s in a whole different category than what Luke Campbell is used to, OK, in his previous opponents that he’s faced. So, I think Luke Campbell’s gonna come in aggressive, he’s gonna come in reckless and that’s where Ryan Garcia should take advantage. I think Luke Campbell is gonna be very cautious, yes, but aggressive at the same time.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.