Boxing News: Ryan Garcia's Former Sparring Partner Calls Him Out For Ring Clash

WBC interim lightweight champion Ryan Garcia is on cloud nine these days after successfully bucking odds against Luke Campbell.

After getting knocked down for the first time in his career, the 22-year-old got up and stopped Campbell via technical knockout in the seventh round.

That effort allowed him to keep his unbeaten slate of 21 wins with no losses to show. It was also his 18th knockout on record. Furthermore, the win also lined him up for a potential clash with Devin Haney, the official WBC lightweight champion.

But in a previous post, the native of California had other boxers in mind. The list includes Gervonta Davis and Manny Pacquiao.

Unfortunately, that may depend on several factors. For one, the WBC plans to call on Garcia to face Haney in a mandatory fight for the WBC lightweight title, Boxingscene reported.

Eddie Hearn was at ringside together with Haney during the fight over the weekend and revealed that the Mexican-American’s win was the final eliminator and that a WBC title fight would be ordered.

“Great fight,” Hearn, who promotes both Campbell and Haney, said. “You just boxed a final eliminator to fight him… [WBC title] fight will now be ordered.”

It should be a good fight to watch and perhaps a hurdle that Garcia needs to overcome before taking on big names like Davis and possibly Pacquiao.

Of the two, a fight with the Filipino boxing icon does not look promising with Pacquiao possibly down to his last fights this 2021.

However, there is one name that comes fairly associated with Pacquiao through Freddie Roach. Stephen McKenna may be a virtual unknown but is someone who has trained with Garcia in the past.

McKenna previously sparred with “KingRy” and alleges he gave the current interim champion a lot of problems when they trained in Los Angeles in 2018, Sky Sports reported.

"At that time, I didn't think he had any power. During our spar, he was a lot of tap, tap, and he was moving a lot. He was going from corner to corner,” McKenna stated.

As far as Garcia’s latest conquest, McKenna felt Campbell should have gone for the kill. He feels that "KingRy" was badly hurt when he got knocked down in the fifth and explained that any other boxer would have followed up and finished the fight.

"Garcia was badly hurt. If I had been in there, I would have got Garcia out of there, if I had him hurt like that," McKenna shared.