{"id":290822,"date":"2025-11-30T03:58:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T03:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/290822\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T03:58:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T03:58:04","slug":"ryan-garcia-names-his-boxing-mount-rushmore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/290822\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Garcia names his boxing Mount Rushmore"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If there were a Mount Rushmore for popular fighters in the 21st century, <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/ryan-garcia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Garcia<\/a> would have a fair shout at taking one of the four slots.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/conor-benn-next-fight-ryan-garcia-record-b2872804.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The 27-year-old is a polarising figure<\/a> \u2014 movie-idol looks, millions of social-media followers and a career that has been nothing short of a rollercoaster. But on February 21, \u2018King Ry\u2019 looks set to challenge Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight title, an announcement Garcia made on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia\u2019s own career may be light years from being mentioned among the sport\u2019s all-time greats, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.covers.com\/boxing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">covers.com<\/a> asked the Californian for his personal boxing Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is my boxing Mount Rushmore: Floyd Mayweather. Sugar Ray Leonard. Muhammad Ali. Henry Armstrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mayweather famously beat Garcia\u2019s current promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, in a generational super-fight 18 years ago. \u2018Money\u2019 went on to amass astronomical riches and collect world titles across five weight classes.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard may not be the greatest Sugar of all time, but he could easily be regarded as the finest boxer of the 1980s. Mayweather was a defensive genius; Leonard was equally gifted on defence and attack. Legacy-defining wins over Wilfred Ben\u00edtez, Roberto Dur\u00e1n, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler ensured his place among boxing\u2019s pantheon of greats.<\/p>\n<p>Muhammad Ali would be a lock for most fans\u2019 Mount Rushmore. \u2018The Greatest\u2019 combined blurring hand speed with footwork more befitting a middleweight than a heavyweight. His roles in The Rumble in the Jungle and The Thrilla in Manila \u2014 beating George Foreman and Joe Frazier respectively \u2014 are career highlights, alongside victories over Sonny Liston, Ken Norton, Leon Spinks and more.<\/p>\n<p>Go further back and you find <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/opinion\/literary-notes-a-review-of-the-life-of-boxing-legend-henry-armstrong\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Henry Armstrong<\/a>, a 5ft 5\u00bdin terror whose career ended with 101 knockouts in 180 fights. During a 15-year run he held three world titles \u2014 when only eight divisions existed \u2014 simultaneously. With nineteen welterweight title defences in just two years, the ferocious \u2018Homicide Hank\u2019 earned both notoriety and acclaim.<\/p>\n<p>Armstrong also won featherweight and lightweight titles either side of his welterweight reign in the 1930s \u2014 a true phenomenon in every sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there were a Mount Rushmore for popular fighters in the 21st century, Ryan Garcia would have a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-290822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}