Ryan Garcia will be back inside the ring at 140, with Pedro Campa the leading candidate to get the nod unless there’s a chance that Kingry can battle for the WBA light welterweight title against Ohara Davies. Ryan will be fighting in November or December, according to Dan Rafael.
For now, Campa (34-3-1, 23 KOs) is the likely next opponent for the the25-year-old Ryan (23-1,19 KOs) because he’s a safer fight for him, given that he is coming off a seventh round knockout loss to Gervonta Davis last April.
Campa has looked good in losing efforts in his last two fights against Brandun Lee and Teofimo Lopez, giving both of those guys something to think about.
Up until he was stopped in the seventh round, he looked better against Teofimo than Josh Taylor recently did.
Golden Boy needs to be careful with Ryan. He looked shaky throughout his fight with Tank Davis, and looked bad in his win over Luke Campbell. Campa has some power, a good chin, and he goes to the body quite well.
Ryan struggles with body shots; there’s a real potential that he could lose to Campa if this fight comes off. It’s important that Ryan not lose before he gets a chance to fight WBA light welterweight champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero because that’s a match-up that will sell with the casual boxing fans and the 11 million Instagram followers of Kingry.
Ryan Garcia returning to the ring
“Ryan [Garcia] is going to be back in November or December. Even though he and Golden Boy are embroiled in a lawsuit, they’re still holding their nose and working with each other,” said Dan Rafael to Boxing Social about Ryan Garcia’s next fight this year.
“They don’t love it, but they’re doing what they got to do because Golden Boy wants Ryan to do their event, and Ryan wants to fight. They are working to put together this event.”
It would be good for Ryan to return to the ring this year rather than wait until 2024 to fight again. He needs to get rounds in with his new coach Derrick James, and he must acclimate himself to the 140-lb division before fighting Rolly Romero for the WBa title.
“One of the leading candidates to get that fight was going to be Pedro Campa. Pedro Campa is a fighter with a couple of losses, but he gave Teofimo Lopez a pretty solid fight when Teofimo had his first fight when he moved up to 140 lbs,” said Rafael.
“He [Campa] did get stopped, but he gave him a pretty good fight. In his next fight, he lost against Brandun Lee, a very good undefeated fighter, but he also gave Brandun Lee a tough fight also.
“If you’re Ryan Garcia, fighting at 140 lbs, coming off a loss a knock out loss in your first fight with a new trainer Derrick James, to me, it seems very reasonable for Campa to beat that kind of opponent,” Dan said.
Title shot unlikely
“I don’t think Ohara Davies gets the nod [for Ryan Garcia’s opponent], only because he’s in line fight in his next fight for the [WBA light welterweight] title,” said Rafael.
It would be a major risk for Ryan to fight Ohara Davies next because that guy has some talent, and there wouldn’t be massive money on the line. When Ryan fights for the WBA 140-lb title, he needs to do it against Rolly because that match will bring in a lot of PPV buys.
“The only way I could see that is if [WBA 140-lb champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ [Romero] is going to be out for a while and he’s been ordered by the WBA to give them a medical report to show why he can’t be doing this mandatory fight that is supposed to be due [against Ohara Davies],” said Rafael.
“Would it be a complete and utter shock, even though Campa is on the shortlist, if they can somehow get it worked out and do Ryan against Ohara Davies if Rolly can’t go, and they do that because of injury? It becomes the interim title. That would not be the biggest shock in the world.
“The WBA has gotten rid of their usage of interim titles. When an interim title, when you would use it when it made sense to use it is when you have a champion that is going to be out for some time because of injury, and you don’t want to hold up the division and the other boxers that are in the ratings that are due to have these title fights, then that’s when you use an interim title.
“I would be okay with that if Romero is injured and will be out for a bit, but I don’t know if they’re [Ryan Garcia] are going to go into a fight that tough with Garcia coming off the kind of loss that he took against Tank Davis.
“The WBA don’t employ a ‘Champion in Recess.’ What they would do is if he [Rolly] couldn’t fulfill the obligation in a timely manner, if they don’t want to use an interim title, they could strip him. That would be unfortunate. You never want to see a guy get stripped because of that.
“We went through that with the IBF when they stripped Joe Cordina because he had a hand injury. He sat out. His vacant [IBF super featherweight] title was won by [Shavkat] Rakhimov, and he came back, and he came back and won a tremendous battle against Rakhimov, and now he’s moving on to his first defense coming up in November.
“So, I’m not sure how it’s going to play with the WBA. I think they’re still waiting to get answers from Romero. My suspicion is Golden Boy will work out it out with Ryan where he’s fighting, whether it’s Campa or someone on that level, where her fighting a good solid professional that is going to be there to fight him, but it wouldn’t necessarily be for a title where it would be if he was fighting [Ohara] Davies.
“They [Golden Boy] signed Davies, knowing that he was a mandatory, in line for a title shot in his next fight against Romero or whatever held the belt at the moment. I think that’s probably still the plan, but it’s boxing. Things change without a blink of an eye,” said Rafael.
