Earlier on Monday, the WBO ordered Ryan Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) and Emmanuel Tagoe (31-1, 15 KOs) to fight in a 135-lb title eliminator. The Garcia-Tagoe winner will be the mandatory challenger for WBO lightweight champion Vasily Lomachenko.
A week ago, the World Boxing Council ordered Ryan Garcia to face Luke Campbell in a WBC lightweight title eliminator. Many fans were excited about the prospects of seeing Ryan and Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs) square off for the interim WBC title. The winner of that fight would be mandatory for WBC 135-pound champion Devin Haney.
There’s a bigger upside in Ryan Garcia taking the fight against #1 WBC Campbell than there is in facing little known Tagoe. But if Golden Boy doesn’t believe that Ryan can beat Campbell, then it makes sense for them to steer their young social media star towards safer waters against Tagoe.
Ryan is famous without having proven himself in boxing. The guys that Ryan Garcia has been matched against have been lesser quality fighters, who were picked carefully. Without Ryan fighting a step up opponent, it would be risky for him to face an experienced guy like Campbell.
Will Ryan Garcia take the more comfortable option against Tagoe?
If Ryan doesn’t take the Campbell fight, this could be the beginning of the end for him in terms of being taken seriously by fans. Ducking Campbell would make Ryan look the same as a lot of fighters in the sport, who avoid fighting the talented opposition so that they can build up their resumes fighting weaker guys.
Most people believe the 21-year-old Ryan will opt to face Tagoe in a WBO title eliminator rather than face the wisened veteran Campbell, who might be too rugged, too talented and too experienced for him.
Ryan has been keeping a low profile on social media for the last two days, and that’s unusual for him. If you read into it a little, it could be a sign that King Ryan has already made up his mind that he won’t be facing the 32-year-old Campbell. Ryan knows that as soon as his boxing fans find out that he’s ducking the Campbell fight, they’re going to blast him like no tomorrow on social media.
It would be a wrong career move for Ryan Garcia not to take the Campbell fight because he’s been calling out al lot of the top fighters for the last year. Ryan already disappointed a lot of his fans when he turned down an offer to headline on July 4.
Fans think Ryan ducked Jorge Linares, a fighter that Golden Boy wanted to match him against. Even if it wasn’t Linares that Ryan’s promoters wanted him to fight on July 4, the perception s still there that he ducked
Assuming that Ryan Garcia does beat Tagoe, he ‘ll be in a position to challenge WBO champion Lomachenko. With that said, Lomachenko is supposed to be vacating his titles after he beats Teofimo Lopez in September. Loma wants to move back down to 130, where his lack of size won’t be as much of a problem as it is today at 135.