Ryan Garcia’s pursuit of a blockbuster fight with Terence Crawford has received some support from former world champion Joseph “JoJo” Diaz, who believes Garcia has the tools to cause the unbeaten legend serious problems.
Garcia is coming off an emphatic victory over Conor Benn, stopping the British fighter in just two rounds to successfully defend his WBC welterweight title. After the fight, Garcia wasted little time turning his attention toward Crawford, who is currently retired.
Crawford has since pushed back on Garcia’s challenge and indicated that a comeback isn’t currently on his agenda. That hasn’t stopped speculation surrounding the matchup, particularly with Turki Alalshikh reportedly interested in Crawford-Garcia as one of several major fights.
Diaz, however, believes Garcia shouldn’t be dismissed if the fight eventually happens.
Speaking to FightHype, the former IBF super-featherweight champion pointed to Garcia’s speed and punching power as reasons he could threaten Crawford.
Diaz acknowledged Crawford’s accomplishments but stressed that even elite fighters can be hurt.
Absolutely [Garcia is capable of challenging Crawford]. Anything can happen in boxing and everybody is human. At the end of the day, everybody bleeds.
Diaz noticed something during Garcia’s brief fight with Benn that he believes could become a major problem against a fighter as technically sharp as Crawford. Garcia experimented with a peek-a-boo defensive style at points, and Diaz wasn’t impressed with what he saw.
Terence Crawford has made a statement in the sport of boxing and he is one hell of a fighter, Ryan Garcia is a hell of a fighter, as well. It’s boxing, anything can happen and you have seen with Terence Crawford, he has got hurt in the past so it without doubt Ryan Garcia could hurt him.
He believes Crawford could quickly recognize openings created by that approach and punish Garcia for them. Diaz therefore wants Garcia to tighten up his defense before stepping into the ring with someone of Crawford’s caliber.
If Ryan Garcia comes with that [peek-a-boo] style like how he did for a couple seconds in the last fight with Conor Benn, I think that Terence Crawford could take advantage of those opportunities and I think that he can really hurt Ryan, as well.
“That peek-a-boo style of defence is not good and I think that people will capitalise on that, so I think that he [Garcia] needs to work on that.
A Crawford fight remains far from guaranteed. Garcia also has other major possibilities available following his win over Benn, while Crawford has publicly given little indication that he’s ready to end his retirement.
