Following Oscar Duarte’s impressive seventh-round stoppage of Miguel Madueno last weekend, coach Robert Garcia believes his junior welterweight contender is nearing a title shot.
Duarte, 29-3-1 (23 KOs), was having his third fight with Garcia, having previously defeated Jojo Diaz and Botirzhon Akhmedov and Madueno, last July, went the 10 round distance with newly-minted WBO champion Keyshawn Davis.
“He’s the first one to stop Madueno, and his performance was great,” Garcia said of Duarte on the BoxingScene Talk Show.
But Garcia knows the business of boxing and understands the biggest fights might elude Duarte for now, but that doesn’t mean he is not setting his sights high. He is keen, for instance, on Duarte tackling new WBO interim champion Arnold Barboza, who won the title against Jack Catterall via narrow decision on the same night Duarte defeated Madueno.
“There’s other names out there that make more sense. Ryan [Garcia] is actually at a different level,” said Garcia. “Golden Boy Promotions just have a new interim champion in [Arnold] Barboza. We would love an opportunity against [Arnold] Barboza – he’s a champion right now. We would love that.
“Honestly, he’s ready for anyone. Obviously the only one we can’t call out – and we’re never going to be fighting our fighters against each other – is against [Jose] ’Rayo’ Valenzuela, because they’re teammates. They train together, they work out together, they’ve sparred together. But any of the other champions, I think this guy’s ready. Duarte, he could surprise everybody.”
Garcia said that, in coaching Duarte, the focus has been on working on combinations and body punching rather than looking for one big shot too frequently and he added that Duarte was a fighter who had been on his radar for some time.
“I’ve seen him since early in his career, when he was fighting four- and six-rounders fighting for Golden Boy Promotions, and I always saw he was a very strong kid and a very dedicated kid,” Garcia continued. “I’m very careful with who I take in. When they’re young, I love those challenges – where they start with their pro debuts to one day becoming world champions. But somebody like Duarte, who is already coming off a loss and comes to me, maybe people don’t believe in him anymore – I love those challenges. That shows what team I have, because it’s not just myself. I’ve always said I have a great team behind me that’s a big part of helping people out and making them better. And that’s what I love to do.”
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