"He needs to win the four belts" - WBA president Gilberto Mendoza responds to Ryan Garcia's disregard of world title belts

With Ryan Garcia rising significantly in the sport of boxing, he has dismissed the legitimacy of the world title belts. The 23-year-old has just moved up to the 140 lbs division, where he defeated Javier Fortuna inside six rounds.

'KingRy' has expressed his desire to face Gervonta Davis for his next contest.

While speaking on the The DAZN Boxing Show in preparation for his fight against Javier Fortuna, Ryan Garcia said:

“You guys put so much emphasis on these belts. Let them go, they don’t mean s***. Belts don’t mean s*** nowadays. If I beat Devin [Haney], they’ll say now go fight Tank [Gervonta Davis]. But if I beat Tank, they can’t say s***."

Meanwhile, WBA president Gilberto Mendoza was a guest on The DAZN Boxing Show, where he spoke about Garcia's comments. He gave the young fighter the benefit of the doubt and suggested the 'strong words' were a result of the pressure of fight week:

"My belt is a 100 years old, no matter what. I understand Ryan. I understand that he’s at the top of the game, I think he’s very positive for the sport. But not every boxer is like him. A boxer needs belts at the end of the day, unfortunately I think he got caught up in the moment."

He added:

"[...] If he wants to prove himself in this current boxing atmosphere, he needs to win the four belts not only at lightweight, but at 140 [pounds] and 147 [pounds], which I think he has a lot of potential to do."

Watch Ryan Garcia's most recent bout against Fortuna here:

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Does Ryan Garcia need four belts to be written in the history books?

In the fight game, the ultimate aim and desire of most fighters is to become a world champion. This is due to the history and prestige of the organizations who own the belts.

WBA president Gilberto Mendoza also highlighted this when commenting on Garcia's career. While speaking on The DAZN Boxing Show, Mendoza said:

"He’s young, he gets a lot of attention because he doesn’t have a belt, but at the end of the day if he wants to write his name in the history books, that legacy cannot continue to happen if he doesn’t have four belts."

Ryan Garcia is yet to challenge for a world title and his former weight division was a highly difficult one to secure a world championship in. He is currently fighting in the super-lightweight division, with Josh Taylor being the current holder of all the belts.

Ultimately, if Garcia is going to take hold of all four belts in his division, he must work his way to a title challenge against Scotland's Josh Taylor.

View Josh Taylor with all his world titles here: