Ryan Garcia has become one of the few fighters at the top of boxing to heap praise on pal Jake Paul for his boxing credentials.
The 23-year-old is one of the most highly-touted young fighters in the sport, and returns to the ring after over a year away this weekend when he faces the veteran Emmanuel Tagoe in Texas. He has a close relationship with the Paul brothers Jake and Logan, who helped him to build his social media presence while he helped to develop them as boxers.
And he has said that Paul is competing at a fair level for the point he is at in his career, despite facing no boxers as yet in his 5-0 professional career. Garcia himself was six fights into his professional career after over 250 amateur bouts before he faced anyone with a winning record, and believes the critics are too harsh on the YouTuber-turned-boxer.
“I love Jake," Garcia said during an appearance on The MMA Hour. "He’s my guy. I got nothing bad to say, and I hope he keeps doing good and making the right decisions. Obviously, he’s beaten everybody that he’s beaten.
"You've got to give him credit, he’s had five fights now - think about it, most boxers are fighting guys that don’t know how to fight anyway. You can’t really claim that he’s doing something wrong if you’re looking at something in a truthful aspect and being honest.”
Garcia and Paul have worked together closely in the past, and even once tricked fans into believing that they were going to put together an exhibition bout. This was in spite of the massive size gap between the 5'10" lightweight Garcia and 6'1" cruiserweight Paul.
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But they are both now continuing with their professional careers, with Garcia coming back following 15 months away from the ring dealing with injuries and mental health struggles. He insists that he is now back to his best, and has left Canelo Alvarez's team including trainer Eddy Reynoso to work with veteran coach Joe Goossen.
“Everything in life plays out how it’s gonna play out," he said of the time away from boxing. "And I feel great. Now if I didn’t feel great I would say that, but I feel amazing.”
“Goossen, me and him worked together before when I was 17 and when I remembered that I was like, you know what, we had a great relationship and he has an old soul too himself. He’s like an old school trainer and I like that feel to the gym.
"I like old music, I like to watch Sugar Ray Robinson so everything just felt good about that decision and once we started working together again it just felt like where exactly I needed to be and we work together so good."
