Oscar De La Hoya reveals that he’s working on “something huge” for his young star Ryan Garcia to return to the ring in April on DAZN. On Friday night, De La Hoya posted on social media, letting his followers know that the highly ranked lightweight contender Ryan (21-0, 18 KOs) has a big fight in the works.
The 23-year-old Ryan is coming off a 15-month layoff since his last fight against Luke Campbell in January 2021, and there’s a lot of anticipation from boxing fans in who the Golden Boy-promoted left hook KO artist will be facing.
Ryan recently got boxing fans energized about a fight between him and Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz for April. Still, according to De La Hoya, he turned down a “lucrative offer” that would have paid the Mexican native more than what he made for his recent fight last December against WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
Cruz’s promoter Sean Gibbons replied to De La Hoya’s Tweet by scolding him for posting a “falsification” about Pitbull having rejected an offer. Gibbons then invited Ryan to have an actual negotiation.
That was back on January 7th, and there’s been zero back & forth talk between Gibbons and De La Hoya since, which can only mean one thing. The Ryan Garcia vs. Isaac Cruz fight is dead in the water.
De La Hoya Retweeted a post from Golden Boy fighter Joseph ‘Jojo Diaz Jr. last week in which he threw his hat in the ring, asking for the Ryan Garcia fight.
Some believe that the 29-year-old former IBF super featherweight champion Jojo Diaz (32-2-1, 15 KOs) will be the next opponent for Ryan’s return fight in April.
Ryan vs. Jojo Diaz is a respectable headliner on DAZN in April, and, likely, many boxing fans WON’T be overjoyed at hearing this fight being made.
Unfortunately, Jojo is coming off a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision defeat at the hands of WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney on December 4th. If not for the loss to Haney, Diaz Jr. would be an excellent option for King Ry to be fighting in April.
Fans would prefer to see Ryan fight Isaac Cruz because he looked world’s better in his controversial 12 round unanimous decision loss to Gervonta last December than the lackluster effort that Jojo Diaz turned in against the non-puncher Haney.
It’s too bad that De La Hoya isn’t matching Ryan Garcia the way he was matched during the early portion of his pro career in the 1990s.
When De La Hoya turned pro after capturing a gold medal in the 1992 Olympics, he showed that he wasn’t playing around in taking on these excellent fighters after just three years in the professional ranks:
- John John Molina
- Jorge Paez
- Carl Griffith
- Wilfredo Rivera
- Genaro Hernandez
- Rafael Ruelas
- Jesse James Leija
De La Hoya was a fantastic combination puncher with huge power and hand speed back then. When you look back at De La Hoya’s skills, it was a superior fighter than Ryan Garcia is today. Unlike De La Hoya, Ryan never throws combinations.
Ryan is strictly a single-shot type of fighter in the Jeff ‘Left Hook’ Lacy mold, and that style will not work for him against the better lightweights.
