Ryan Garcia vs Francisco Fonseca Odds & Picks

• Garcia vs Fonseca takes place Friday, February 14th, at 9:00 PM ET
• Garcia is a prohibitively short -5000 favorite
• Can underdog Fonseca halt the progress of his opponent and become a big player in 2020?
  

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Ryan Garcia vs Francisco Fonseca emanates from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, this Friday (Feb. 14th). The WBC silver lightweight title is the prize that these pugilists are vying for. While many are settling down for an intimate night with a loved one, these two men will enter the ring to batter one another on Valentine’s Day.

Garcia is an unbeaten prospect and, at 21 years old, has already established himself as someone who can threaten the lightweight hierarchy in a big way. First, he must get through a veteran who is stepping into the ring for his 30th professional fight. Find the odds and analysis of the bout below.

Garcia vs Fonseca Odds

Odds taken Feb. 12th.

Garcia says going 20-0 in 2020 has a nice ring to it. The rising prospect enters this bout on the heels of a first-round KO victory over Romero Duno in November 2019. The last bout for Fonseca was a majority draw against Alex Dilmaghani for the IBO world super featherweight title. Still though, Fonseca occupies the gatekeeper spot for this one and this bout represents a crossroads for both men.

Fonseca has had a respectable enough career with some solid wins and title victories (WBO Latino super featherweight title and IBF intercontinental super-featherweight title). When he takes that next step up in competition, though, it seems like he falters more often than not (see losses to Tevin Farmer and Gervonta Davis). This is a high-stakes fight for him and could represent his last chance to wash clean of that gatekeeper tag.

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

Garcia is defending his WBC silver lightweight title in this bout and Fonseca is in the contender role. The title-holder has a lot of potential to become a star in boxing even beyond his in-ring proficiency. Garcia is represented by Golden Boy Promotions, which also represents Canelo Alvarez, and Garcia has some similar superstar traits. He’s considered quite handsome and draws in different demographics than the average pugilist (i.e. teenage girls).

As Garcia again fights on DAZN, I imagine he’s hoping for a performance similar to when he first fought on the platform.

Ryan Garcia’s first fight on DAZN featured everything …

?Shoved into ring girl at weigh-in
?Knocked opponent out through the ropes
?Hugged it out with same ring girl after the KO pic.twitter.com/fecPtvv2LG

— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) February 12, 2020

Garcia seems to be living up to the potential that he was touted with when he was given the distinction of being ESPN’s prospect of the year in 2017. Since then he has ascended the ranks to where he is now #6 per Ring Magazine. Garcia isn’t just some kind of big power puncher. He is also blisteringly fast and has shown a pretty high fight IQ/. There’s a lot of technique/ strong sense of ringcraft to underpin the stoppage power he was preternaturally gifted with.

Garcia vs Fonseca Tale of the Tape

The bout is scheduled for twelve rounds but I do no see this prizefight going the distance. Though Fonseca has only been stopped once via KO (by notorious power puncher Gervonta Davis), I see Garcia securing the stoppage victory inside of eight rounds.

Pick: Ryan Garcia (-5000)