Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero says Turki Alalshikh went to Ryan Garcia’s corner during their fight last Friday, trying to motivate him, telling him to “Throw some punches.” Ryan (24-2, 20 KOs) didn’t try hard to win. Romero (17-2, 13 KOs) won a 12-round unanimous decision at Times Square in New York.
Garcia’s defeat wrecked Turki’s plans for a rematch with Devin Haney in October. According to promoter Eddie Hearn, they were going to have a face-off inside the ring after the fight to announce their rematch. When Ryan lost, those plans were dashed.
Turki’s Corner Plea
“Turki went to him in his corner and said, ‘What are you doing? Throw some punches,’” said Rolly Romero to the Danza Project about how he says Turki Alalshikh went to Ryan Garcia’s corner during their fight to try and encourage him to fight harder last Friday night at Times Square. “You can’t, bro.”
It sounds bad that Turki went to Ryan’s corner to give him a pep talk. It sounds like he gave him one of those, ‘Win just one for the Gipper’ type speeches to put a fire under Garcia’s backside.
“I’ll tell you this. Ryan beats Devin again. Ryan goes on a winning streak. You can just tell that Ryan goes on a winning streak, because Ryan is a tremendous fighter. Those were two horrible,” said Rolly about Devin Haney’s fight against Jose Ramirez last Friday, and Canelo Alvarez’s clash against William Scull last Saturday in Riyadh.
Garcia will probably beat Haney again because he has the power and size to knock him out. He would just have to figure out a way to get to Haney to land because he would be moving nonstop.
“I couldn’t even watch the Devin fight. I was warming up in back. I didn’t want to fall asleep on the way to the arena. These guys don’t have the will to win decisively because they already have fights lined up after,” said Rolly.
Turki made a mistake of including Haney on the card, where he would be seen by tons of fans. It would have been better to place him on a smaller card and bury his fight down below, where he wouldn’t be seen by a large number of fans. The only way it would make sense to have put him on last Friday’s card is if he were matched against a killer in a sink-or-swim fight.
Haney and Canelo Slammed
“That’s the thing. When you’re overpaying fighters, telling them that ‘No matter what happens, whether you win or lose, you’re still going to fight.’ You just took away their whole will to win. They’re like, ‘Okay, I’m not going to be gritty. They’re doing it for a check,” said Romero.
Haney looked shell-shocked against Jose Ramirez last Friday. That had nothing to do with Devin looking toward his next check. He looked jittery and 100% nervous about getting hit, because he seemed to have lost confidence in his ability to take a hard shot.
“These people all fight, and Canelo is included in this now, too; they’re fighting for their next check. They’re not fighting to be a champion. They’re not fighting to win. They’re fighting for their next check,” said Romero.
Ryan, Haney, and Canelo’s poor performances weren’t solely because they were fighting for their next check. Garcia and Haney are not cutting-edge fighters to begin with. So, for them to look poor, it shouldn’t be a shock because they’re middle-of-the-road type fighters.
They were made to look better than they actually are by matchmaking and, in Haney’s case, questionable judging. Canelo is just old and washed up. He’s been able to keep his career going with matchmaking, avoiding dangerous fighters like David Benavidez and David Morrell.
Last Updated on 05/07/2025
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