Ryan Garcia’s “Unprepared” Camp: Shakur Stevenson Breaks Down Loss To Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero

Shakur Stevenson believes that Ryan Garcia didn’t “prepare” adequately for his fight against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero on May 2nd at Times Square in New York. He thinks the training camp wasn’t a “good” one for Ryan (24-2, 20 KOs), and there may not have been “enough time” to get him ready for the slugger Rolly (17-2, 13 KOs).

Rolly Romero Fight Analysis

The judges scored it 115-112, 118-109, and 115-112. Of those, 118-109 was the most accurate score of the three to describe what took place in the fight that night. Garcia was totally gun-shy after being knocked down in round two, and did almost nothing against a very limited-looking Rolly for the last nine rounds of the dull contest.

It was a tough fight for Garcia to take, coming off a 13-month layoff against a big puncher like Rolly. He looked like a junior middleweight after rehydrating for the fight, and Garcia appeared much smaller. The matchmakers may have overestimated what Ryan was capable of doing after his win over Devin Haney in 2024.

“I wasn’t too mad at Devin and Teo because it looked like they actually trained. It looked like they went out there and trained for that fight,” said Shakur Stevenson to DAZN Boxing, talking about the May 2nd Times Square card in which Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez turned in boring performances.

Ryan Garcia’s Poor Prep

“I don’t think Ryan Garcia gave the best version of Ryan Garcia. I don’t think he trained. I don’t think he prepared. I don’t think there was a training camp in place that got him ready for that fight,” Stevenson said about Ryan’s headliner against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero. “If it was, it wasn’t a good one, and it wasn’t a lot of time. It couldn’t have been.”

Garcia may have had a good camp, but he wasn’t capable of dealing with the size and power of a fighter like Romero. This guy was like kryptonite for his style of fighting.