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Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was proud of the recent performance from rising lightweight Ryan Garcia.
Canelo was present, at ringside, for Garcia’s big win on Saturday night at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas.
Both fighters are trained by veteran coach Eddy Reynoso.
Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) picked up the biggest win of his career when he knocked out Luke Campbell in the seventh round to capture the WBC interim-lightweight title.
The young fighter had to face some adversity, as Campbell dropped him hard with a counter hook in the second round.
Garcia was able to recover by the following round, and then badly hurt Campbell near the end of the fifth.
The end came in the seventh, when Garcia landed a vicious hook to the liver that put Campbell down to his knees for the full count of ten.
Canelo, who often helps Garcia in the gym and embraced him after the fight, believes the up and comer proved himself as a quality fighter.
“Ryan Garcia showed that he has balls. That is one of the most important things in boxing. And this fight is going to serve him well. Luke Campbell is a good fighter, left-handed, difficult. This fight is going to serve him more than all the ones he has fought,” Canelo told Little Giant Boxing.
Canelo believes the experience of being dropped in the second will provide the young boxer with a real positive experience for other fights in the future.
“The key was to be patient, to be calm, but he sped things up. This fight will serve as an experience for him. In the end, fights like this are the ones that give you the experience to go forward to even bigger fights and everything like this will serve him well,” Canelo said.