By Norm Frauenheim–
A welcome chance to say goodbye to a lousy year begins amid reasons for skepticism about whether the new one will be any better.
The calendar changes.
The mood doesn’t.
Not with comments from Errol Spence and Terence Crawford that seem to eliminate any chance of them fighting in 2021 or any other year. Not with Canelo Alvarez headed for a mandatory title defense against Avni Yildirim, a super-middleweight with less name recognition and perhaps fewer skills than Callum Smith.
Yet, the year’s second day offers some promise, a glimpse perhaps at an emerging new face that can drag boxing out of a balkanized never-never land crisscrossed by rival promoters, networks and acronyms.
The promise is there, in Ryan Garcia’s unscarred face. There, too, in power augmented by hand speed. There, too, in charisma, the so-called “it” factor. It isn’t quite the intangible it once was. Garcia can put a number on it. His social-media audience is reported to 7.8 million. That’s not a following. It’s an empire.
That it, and all of its expectations, will be watching Saturday when Garcia’s star potential undergoes its first substantive test against Luke Campbell on DAZN at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
News broke Thursday that no more tickets were available for seats allowed under the socially-distancing protocol mandated by Texas. It wasn’t exactly clear what the sellout means in terms of numbers. But there’s a sense that Garcia would generate a capacity crowd no matter how many seats.
It’s easy to dismiss the social-media aspect. It’s a target, an inevitable one for Campbell, a UK Olympic gold medalist who says Garcia’s popular appearances on video are a one-man show. In the ring’s reality, he’ll be facing – fighting — Campbell instead of just a stationary bag and a camera. Yet in an unexpected twist for fans skeptical of social media, Garcia’s huge following is a reason to like him.
He was a fighter before he was a social-media star, unlike the new generation of YouTubers. They gained social-media fame before they ever stepped through the ropes. On a YouTubers’ tale of the tape only the social-media number counts.
To wit: Garcia is real, the Paul wannabes aren’t. I wouldn’t know Jake from Logan or Rand. I just know one of them is supposed to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. some time in February in an exhibition that figures to make them money and a few fight fans exasperated.
The fear is that the YouTubers are poised to become the future face of the game. From this corner, that’s a future that won’t last long. But Garcia is the potential counter. He has a real chance at putting some reality back in the virtual. Can he? Will he?
A lot will be learned Saturday in a bout that is also another sign that the 135-pound division will be boxing’s best in 2021. There’s Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney, Gervonta Davis and Australian George Kambosos Jr. There’s still Vasiliy Lomachenko, who doesn’t figure to disappear after his loss to Lopez. The vanishing prospect of Spence-versus-Crawford makes the welterweights less interesting, even irrelevant. Crawford recently tweeted that, bleep it, he’d go back to lightweight. He, too, can see that things look a lot more interesting at 135 than 147.
On Saturday, the lightweight division’s many possibilities may continue to unfold. For Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs), it’s a risky step, mostly because Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs) knows what he’s doing. In his only world-title shots, the Brit lost a unanimous decision to Lomachenko and a split decision to Jorge Linares. He also lost a split decision to Yven Mendy nearly five years ago.
Campbell, 33, has been hit by punches from angles never seen by the unbeaten Garcia, who is coming off four straight stoppages, the last two in the first round. Campbell is a good body puncher. His pressure figures to back up Garcia, who has never shown he can fight off his back foot.
More important, perhaps, Campbell has never been stopped. He’s tough, a seasoned fighter against a young one who has never gone 12 rounds. The 22-year-old Garcia has gone 10 rounds twice, both in 2018.
For Campbell, the fight looks like A Last Chance. For Garcia, it’s A Beginning.
The pick: A Beginning.
Garcia’s punches travel at a rate never seen by Campbell. He still won’t see them, especially the left which will land more than once for Garcia, who will win a significant measure of proof along with untold numbers of additional social-media followers in a seventh-round TKO.
