Who is Ryan “KingRy” Garcia?
“King” Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19KO) faces Gervonta “Tank” Davis (28-0, 26KO) on April 22 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in what is all set to be the biggest fight of the year yet!
These rivals have 51 wins and 45 KOs between them, both unbeaten and in their prime, and have been on a collision course for some time building up plenty of bad blood over the years. It has all the ingredients to be a fight for the ages, especially with their polar opposite styles – Garcia is tall and rangey, while Davis is short and aggressive.
Gervonta is already a three-weight world champion and has declared himself as a boxing legend, but Garcia is yet to challenge for word title honours, so who is he? Find out everything you need to know about “KingRy” below:
Ryan Garcia Facts
Ryan Garcia was born August 8, 1998, in Victorville, California, and comes from a large family with three sisters and one brother – Kayla, Demi, Sasha, Sean. His parents, Henry and Lisa Garcia, were actively involved in his amateur career and continue to assist him with his professional career as his father remains one of his trainers and his mother works as his Personal Administrative Assistant for commercial projects. Both parents are USA Amateur Boxing Officials.
His aforementioned younger brother, Sean, is also a professional boxer, with a record of 6-0-1, 2KO. His nickname is "Sugar Rush" and campaigns at lightweight. As an amateur, he was a 2016 USA Junior Open Champion, beating Jeremy Adorno in the final.
His father, Henry, wanted to be a professional boxer but ended up as a trainer instead. His uncle, Sergio Garcia, was a professional boxer.
Young Ryan started boxing at the age of seven and became a 15-time national amateur champion, amassing an amateur record of 215-15.
Amateur scalps include Brandun Lee; Vergil Ortiz Jr; Reshat Mati; Devin Haney; Logan Yoon.
Notable amateur defeats came against Raymond Muratalla; Shakur Stevenson; Logan Yoon; Devin Haney.
His boxing nickname is “KingRy” and also been known as “The Flash”.
He was trained by Canelo's trainer Eddy Reynoso at their gym San Diego gym from October 2018 to February 2022. He is now trained by Joe Goosen.
He turned pro aged 17 and won his debut in June 2016 within 94 seconds against Edgar Meza in Tijuana. He had his first four fights in Mexico while still 17, then made his U.S. debut nine days after his 18th birthday in Los Angeles, then signed with Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions in November 2016 when he was 6-0.
He won his first pro title in his 11th bout in September 2017, just 15 months into his career, defeating Miguel Carrizoza within 30 seconds to win the NABF Junior super-featherweight title. It was this performance that really made him famous in America.
He was awarded ESPN's Prospect of the Year 2017.
He took a big step up in levels against world title contender Jayson Velez in 2018, winning via UD to secure the NABF and WBO NABO super-featherweight titles.
He then moved up to lightweight and won the coveted WBC Silver super-featherweight title within four fights. He defended it once then went straight into the biggest fight of his career against Olympian Luke Campbell for the vacant WBC Interim World lightweight title, which he won in the seventh round, after being floored himself in round two.
His 23 opponents' records combined stands at 347-100.
In March 2019, Garcia's daughter was born, who is now four.
In September 2019, Ryan renewed his contract with Golden Boy, described as "one of the most lucrative deals in history for a boxing prospect."
Although American by birth and nationality, Garcia often incorporates his Mexican heritage into his persona and often carries both the U.S. and Mexican flags into the ring and frequently wears red, white, and blue.
In 2021, Garcia's huge appeal and popularity saw him sign a deal with sports drink Gatorade to appear in TV commercials advertising the brand, thus becoming the first American boxer ever to appear on a Gatorade campaign.
In December 2022, Garcia began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Rener Gracie.
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