Heading into Ryan Garcia’s upcoming fight against veteran Javier Fortuna, Garcia’s trainer Joe Goossen takes some time to talk to Fight Hub TV about their preparations for the bout, and his expectations for Garcia moving forward.
Goossen says since Fortuna was bold enough to declare that he’s going to come right after Garcia and knock him out — because those are fighting words — he’s not going to hold his tongue on what they intend to do to Fortuna instead.
On where he’s looking for Garcia to improve heading into their second fight together
“He did look outstanding even though we didn’t get much cooperation from the opponent who really didn’t give a good performance out there. He kinda held and ran after he got hit in that second round. We almost had him out a couple of times after that but I was a little disappointed in that because if Ryan wasn’t there that night, there wasn’t a fight.
“So I think the fans got deprived. But this fight here we’ve got a really good opponent. We’ve got Javier Fortuna, who we know will fight. He’s a southpaw, so that always poses a little bit of a dilemma, so you’ve got to go out there and get the right sparring partners, your drills on the floor have to center around left-handers, not right-handers, so it’s a big switch-up from what your brain does on a normal basis.
“So that poses a little bit of a challenge, but Ryan actually likes fighting southpaws because he’s sparred with his little brother Sean, who’s a left-hander. So he grew up sparring with his brother and he actually likes — which is unusual — fighting left-handers, not that he’s fought a lot of them, even though he knocked out Luke Campbell.”
On Fortuna saying he’s going to come right after Garcia during their media session
“I think he’s right, he predicted well. He’s going to come right at Ryan and get knocked out. So I appreciate that from him. And that’s what I love, that he’s gonna come and be aggressive. Because if he thinks he punches harder than Ryan Garcia, and if he thinks he’s not gonna get hit by Ryan Garcia, well, you know, he’s got another thing coming. It is gonna be a good fight. I don’t think Javier Fortuna will never land a punch, of course, he’s a solid veteran — but he’s not gonna knock out Ryan Garcia, it’s gonna be the other way around.
“Now I would’ve never said that had (Fortuna) not been so bold to predict that. If he just said he was just training hard and coming to win, great, I respect that. But if you say you’re gonna knock out my fighter, I’ve got something to say about that. And if he’s gonna come full steam ahead, he’s gonna walk into something.”
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