Ryan Garcia: ‘If he’s ready, I’m ready. He said he’s going for a KO, you know I’m going for a KO’
On Luke Campbell:
“It’s a very exciting moment. This is the moment where I know it is the most defining part of my career so far. This is the start of the new year and this is either going to be my era or I’m going to take a step back and re-evaluate. If he’s ready, I’m ready. He said he’s going for the knockout, you know I’m going for the knockout. There’s not one thing in this ring that he’s going to do that’s going to make me doubt myself. It’s going to be a hell of a fight. I know he says he’s in his prime and I’m coming into my prime. This is going to be a great fight. I’m going out there swinging. I’m going to leave my whole heart in there. This is it. I feel like this is like a championship fight. It’s not officially a world championship fight but it feels like it is to me.”
Career goals for Garcia:
“One of my goals is to beat fighters in their prime, deadly fighters – the fighters people don’t want to step in the ring with. You’ve got Gervonta Davis, Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney all in their prime. Then you’ve got Luke Campbell who says he’s in his prime. If I beat all of these dudes, and I plan to do it back-to-back, I can set myself up for potentially be one of the greatest of all time. That’s my dream. My dream is to be one of the greatest fighters of all time. But to do that it takes a load of amount to pressure, guts and gambles. I want to be done with this by 26. I don’t care to be in it longer. I want to do something nobody has ever done. I’ve studied the game and there’s not many fighters who will take those fights. You’ve got the legends like Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali fought Sonny Liston when nobody wanted to fight Sonny Liston. They were scared for Cassius Clay to step up. Now they’re scared for me to fight Gervonta Davis. ‘Why would you do this to yourself? You’re so young’. But this is just what’s in my heart, I feel it in my heart I can win all those fights. I have the speed and the power, it’s just about doing it and preparing myself. There’s a lot of potential here to do something amazing. All I have to do is go out and do it.”