By Sean Jones: Ryan Garcia has yet to decide who his next opponent will be after he lost out on his preferred fights against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Manny Pacquiao.
The highly popular WBC interim lightweight champion Ryan is coming off a 7th round knockout win over Luke Campbell on January 2nd on DAZN. He needs to return to the ring soon to keep his momentum going.
Despite having a golden opportunity to challenge WBC 135-lb champion Devin Haney, the finicky Ryan Garcia rejected that fight, saying he only wants to face Pacquiao or Gervonta Davis.
Unfortunately, Ryan has gotten neither of those bouts, and he’s sitting inactive, doing little other than his Instagram posting.
Ryan’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions, said he’d be meeting with him this week to give him a path to a world title and superstardom.
The 22-year-old King Ryan (21-0, 18 KOs) could have fought Tank Davis, but he shifted his attention to Pacquiao. That fight didn’t happen for whatever reason.
At this point, it’s unclear if Ryan is stubbornly waiting for what many boxing fans view as a cash-out for him against Pacquiao or Tank or if he’s serious about wanting to face the best at 135.
Should Ryan Garcia fight Richard Commey?
“I think Richard Commey makes perfect sense,” said Sergio Mora to DAZN on who Ryan Garcia should fight next.
“He’s only been stopped one time, and that was maybe the best lightweight, Teofimo Lopez. That makes the most sense for the top contender in Ryan Garcia himself in with a former champion like Commey.
It’s an excellent fight to stay busy and then ride it out until the fall to where he can fight the winner of Linares and Haney.”
Former IBF lightweight champion Commey (30-3, 27 KOs) is a much more dangerous fight for Ryan than his last contest against Luke Campbell. We saw in that fight that Campbell was able to hurt Ryan, dropping him hard in the second round.
It’s a mystery why Luke didn’t attempt to finish Ryan after he had him badly hurt because the opportunity was there. It’s fair to say that if the 34-year-old Commey puts Ryan in the same position, he’ll likely finish him.
Ryan’s promoter De La Hoya likely won’t be excited about letting him fight a slugger like Commey, even though Teofimo Lopez recently stopped him in the second round in December 2019.
First off, Teofimo is basically a 140-pounder masquerading as a 135-lb fighter, and he’s huge for the weight class.
Secondly, Teofimo is more polished than Ryan Garcia is at this point despite the two being roughly the same age.
For those reasons, Teofimo was ready to take on a fighter puncher like Commey because he had the style, technical ability, and chin to beat him. In contrast, Ryan is missing in all those areas, and he’s clearly NOT ready for Commey, which is why De La Hoya will likely reject the idea of him taking that fight.
De La Hoya has something special for Ryan Garcia
“We have something special in line for Ryan. I’m using down with him next week, and I’m going to present him a plan that will take him to world title status and to superstardom,” said La Hoya to DAZN about Ryan Garcia. “We have to be very smart in how we plan out his career.”
The wording that De La Hoya uses in talking about Ryan suggests that he’s someone that he needs to take a cautious approach.
One doesn’t get the sense that De La Hoya will take risks with Ryan in the same way that he’s gung-ho about with the rugged welterweight Vergil Ortiz Jr. Oscar is ready to let Vergil take on WBO 147-lb champion Terence Crawford.
With Ryan Garcia, we’ll probably see him offered fights against one of these guys for his next outing:
- Jackson Marinez
- Lee Selby
- James Tennyson
- Yvan Mendy
- Maxi Hughes
- Alfredo Santiago
It’s going to be someone that has been beaten before and not a huge threat to beat Ryan.