Ryan Garcia is one of the hottest prospects in the boxing world right now and he’s also been spotted training BJJ, taking his first lesson from none other than Rener Gracie. It was clear from very early on in Garcia’s career that he was going to be something special in the boxing world, as he started training at the age of 7 and almost immediately put in impressive performances in the ring. By the time his career as an amateur came to an end, Garcia had amassed a stunning 215-15 official record and had become a fifteen-time national champion in the sport.
He wasted no time in turning professional either, doing so at the age of just 17 and booking his first professional fight for just a few months after his 18th birthday. In the six years since then, Garcia has gone from strength to strength and has put together a perfect 23-0 professional record that includes the WBC interim lightweight title. The future looks very bright indeed for Garcia and its almost a dead certainty that he will one day be able to lift an undisputed major title as well.
In the meantime Ryan Garcia appears to have taken an interest in BJJ as well, and has gotten into contact with Rener Gracie to arrange his first training session. Garcia is far from the first elite boxer to take up BJJ, as Claressa Shields picked up the sport a few years ago in order to aid her transition to MMA. There’s no news yet that indicates whether Garcia himself will be looking to make the move to MMA and it seems unlikely that he would do so while he’s still early in his professional boxing career. After all, according to Ben Askren MMA is much harder than boxing.
The news that undefeated boxing star Ryan Garcia had taken up BJJ under Rener Gracie was announced in a post to the black belt coach’s official Instagram account:
