Canelo isn’t mincing words about stablemate Ryan Garcia, who has gone through a tumultuous year after first withdrawing from a fight to take a hiatus from boxing in order to deal with mental health issues, and then subsequently withdrawing from a bout with Joseph Diaz Jr after injuring his hand in training.
Whatever is going on with Garcia’s boxing career right now, Canelo — with whom Garcia trains — is concerned. So much so, it seems, that in an interview with Complex he made it clear Garcia is wasting his talent.
“Look, Ryan has a lot of talent. But to me in my eyes, he’s wasting a lot of time and wasting his talent. I look at him and don’t see him 100 percent dedicated and, to us, that’s a bad signal. We always remind him as a team to come to the gym, to train, and to learn because you need to be in the gym.
“You’re learning day-by-day, at the very minimum fighting five times a year. When I was beginning my career, I did 15 fights in one year. That’s where I was at the beginning of my career. So definitely he needs to be a little more dedicated.”
Obviously Canelo questioning Garcia’s commitment is going to ruffle some feathers, but perhaps that’s exactly the kind of motivation Garcia needs to get things back on track. Garcia had a lot of momentum going for him after beating Luke Campbell to start the year, but hasn’t been in the ring since and there’s no clear timetable on when he’ll be ready to fight again — but it definitely won’t be in 2021.