By Allan Fox: WBC interim lightweight champion Ryan ‘King Ry’ Garcia and Javier Fortuna have reportedly agreed to meet in a headliner fight on DAZN in July. Mike Coppinger of The Athletic reporting the news of the Garcia vs. Fortuna fight.
It’s obviously a baffling one considering that the Garcia-Fortuna fight winner is expected to fight WBC lightweight champion Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney. That’s if Haney, 22, is victorious in his title defense on May 29th against #3 WBC Jorge Linares on DAZN.
It’s not a dead certainty that the light-hitting Haney wins that fight, but if he does, there’s a possibility that he’ll fight the Garcia vs. Fortuna winner.
If Ryan loses this fight, Golden Boy Promotions will watch their new franchise fighter go down the drain. With his absurd 8.6 million Instagram followers on social media, Ryan is one of the new era of boxing.
Ryan hasn’t beaten anyone to justify his popularity, but he’s not being followed because of his boxing. It’s more about Ryan being a celebrity.
Ryan Garcia vs. Javier Fortuna in LA or Las Vegas
“The fight is slated for July in either Los Angeles or Las Vegas,” said Mike Coppinger about the Ryan Garcia vs. Javier Fortuna clash.
Ryan (21-0, 18 KOs) already turned down a title shot against Haney, choosing instead to set up a fight with Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Manny Pacquiao.
Even when those fights slipped through King Ry’s fingers, he STILL said he didn’t wish to fight Haney (25-0, 15 KOs), who he views as a boring fighter. Maybe Ryan has changed his mind about not wanting to fight Haney?
Former WBA super featherweight champion Fortuna (36-2-1, 25 KOs) is a tough cookie for Ryan or anyone in the 135-lb division. Fortuna, 31, can punch, and he’s got a physical style of fighting that is a problem for most of his opponents.
The only guys that have beaten Fortuna are Jason Sosa, and Robert Easter Jr. Sosa got up off the deck in the fifth round to come back to stop Fortuna in the 11th round in June 2016 in a war.
King Ryan facing his toughest test against Fortuna
That was not an easy win for Sosa, as he had to take a lot of punishment to wear Fortuna down slowly.
It’s debatable whether Ryan Garcia can take that kind of abuse from Fortuna. This is by far the toughest test of Ryan’s five-year professional career, and he may lose.
We saw how Luke Campbell was able to drop Ryan in their fight last January. Fortuna is arguably an upgrade over Campbell in terms of punching power, offensive skills, and toughness.
Ryan’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions said he would be meeting with him this week to discuss his future.
The next move for Ryan if he beats Fortuna and if Haney defeats Linares could be a fight between the two winners later this year. It depends, though.
Haney vs. Ryan Garcia could happen in late 2021
If Ryan can get a fight against Manny Pacquiao or Tank Davis, he’ll likely go in that direction, but more likely, it’ll be Devin. Haney isn’t popular enough yet for a fight between him and Ryan to be a huge affair.
It’s too bad Haney chose not to fight Vasily Lomachenko next because that’s a fight that would have made him a bigger name if he were to win.
Facing the 35-year-old Linares won’t do as much for Haney’s career because he’s been knocked out too often. Haney is being matched carefully by his dad Bill and his promoters at Matchroom Boxing.
They’re making sure that Haney doesn’t fight guys who could beat him like Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez, and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
Haney is being steered towards the Ryan Garcia fight, suggests that his management believes he can beat him.
Ryan needs to make sure that he can beat Haney before taking the fight because there may not be much money in this match-up yet to make the risk worthwhile.