Promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s now hoping that Ryan Garcia will turn his attention back to Devin Haney or Regis Prograis for his next fight now that Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero has chosen to fight Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz on March 30th.
Hearn feels that Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) needs a dance partner like WBC light welterweight champion Haney if he wants to bring in the PPV buys.
Ryan hasn’t said who his plan-B opponent is but his promoter Oscar De La Hoya hinted today that he’s going to have a “big announcement” for his next fight on April 20.
Hearn says he thinks that PBC didn’t want to sacrifice Rolly to Ryan, knowing that he could lose that fight along with his WBA 140-lb belt.
“The only way I can interpret it is PBC wants to keep Rolly and give it to his guys. Ryan Garcia is not yet a PBC fighter,” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV about why he thinks Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero is fighting Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz next on March 30th rather than facing Ryan Garcia.
“PBC is always reluctant to give you one of their guys for a belt when your a favorite in the fight, which Ryan would be a big favorite in that fight [against Rolly Romero]. So, Rolly is fighting Isaac Cruz, and then we’ll see what happens.
“So, hopefully now, and this would be the natural thing to do, Ryan just turns around and goes, ‘Okay, I’m back to Devin,’ and then we go ahead and make Haney-Garcia, which is 100% the fight to make, one of the best fights in the sport, or if he wants to fight Regis [Prograis], we’ve also got Regis for him. Last night, it [Rolly fight] got announced by Ryan Garcia
“With all due respect to Oscar [De La Hoya]. Ryan is going to chose the fight. So, that’s why when I heard Ryan say, ‘I’m fighting Devin Haney,’ I was over the moon because I knew that wasn’t promoter talk. That’s fighter talk. So, I was disappointed when that fell apart.
“Hopefully, now Ryan wants to revisit that [fight against Haney]. Ryan is a big name, but he also need a dance partner. You can’t just do Ryan against X and expect it to do really well on PPV.
“If it’s going to be on PPV, then it’s really going to have to be Devin Haney or Tank or Teo. That fight [Haney vs. Ryan] is there to be made, and hopefully, we can talk about it,” said Hearn.
