Ryan Garcia will fight next on April 20th in a “big” fight, says his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya. He isn’t saying who the highly ranked #4 WBA, #5 IBF, #6 WBC, and #9 WBO Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) is, but it’ll be someone big.
Garcia lost his chance to fight WBA light welterweight champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero, who surprised him by negotiating a fight with Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz for March 30th on Amazon Prime Video PPV.
De La Hoya hasn’t given up on matching Ryan against Rolly, saying they can still fight after Romero defends against Cruz.
April 20th: The Date Cirled on the Calendar
“We have April 20th, that’s our date. I’m going to announce something really, really big when it gets signed,” said De La Hoya to Fight Hub TV about Ryan Garcia’s next fight.
It’s fair to say that Ryan’s April 20th opponent will be someone who is harmless at the level of what fans have seen him fight over the last few years.
The dangerous opponents will be the ones that Ryan can make a killing fighting, like Devin Haney, Gervonta Davis, Teofimo Lopez, and, to a certain extent, Rolly. He’s not really dangerous, but he is for Ryan.
Oscar didn’t say whether he would attempt to put a fight together with Cruz and Ryan if he comes out victorious on March 30th.
Rolly likely has a rematch clause in the contract with Pitbull, so De La Hoya will need to wait for those two to fight twice before he looks to match Ryan against the winner.
147lbs: A Potential Weight Shift?
“You never know, maybe he moves up to 147lbs; who knows?” said De La Hoya about Ryan potentially going up to welterweight for his next fight.
Boxing fans on social media interpret this comment from De La Hoya to mean that Ryan could go up to welterweight to fight in an exhibition match against 45-year-old Manny Pacquiao, who retired three years ago in 2021.
A fight against Pacquiao would interest Ryan’s 11 million Instagram followers but not the regular fans, who would not want to see that match-up. It would further harden their few of Ryan as a social media fighter, not a real one.
The other possibility is that Ryan would move up to 147 and face WBC interim welterweight champion, Mario Barrios. That match-up would be viewed as legitimate, but it is still a poor one.
