By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC interim lightweight champion Ryan Garcia is vowing that 2022 will be his big break-out year. Fans were hoping Garcia would face former IBF super featherweight champion Joseph ‘Jo Jo Diaz Jr (32-1, 15 KOs) next, but it doesn’t appear that’s going to happen now.
With Ryan saying NEXT year will be when big things happen for him, he’s giving them a tip that he’s not going to be taking any dangerous fights for the remainder of 2021 if he even gets back in the ring.
Ryan dealt with anxiety problems that surfaced shortly after the World Boxing had ordered him to face former WBA 130-lb champion Javier Fortuna on July 9th.
Whether the anxiety issues were tied into Ryan being ordered to fight the always tough Fortuna is unknown.
The only thing that boxing fans know is Ryan has taken care of his problems, and he no longer needs to concern himself with Fortuna, as ‘Jo Jo Diaz Jr. beat him last July with a 12 round unanimous decision.
The 22-year-old unbeaten Ryan (21-0, 18 KOs) has only fought since this year, stopping Luke Campbell in the seventh round in January.
2022 is going to be my year 🥊
Only Huge fights LETS GO!! 👊🏼
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) August 24, 2021
If Ryan is done for the year, he’s going to have many of his boxing fans jumping ship, giving up on him, as he’s not fighting enough for a 22-year-old.
You can argue that the fans knew it was too good to be true when Ryan began talking of fighting Jo Jo Diaz Jr next, as that’s a fight that would be out of character for him.
I mean, it wouldn’t be out of character for Ryan Garcia to talk about wanting to fight a talented fighter like Jo Jo Diaz. Ryan does a lot of talking, but he never backs it up by carrying through to the actual fights.
Ryan has gotten his fans’ hopes up by talking up fights with Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, Manny Pacquiao, Devin Haney, and Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz Jr., and then failed to deliver.
At this point, Ryan Garcia’s career appears to be purposeless, with little to set him apart from the new YouTuber boxing events.
Ryan has done little to separate himself from the likes of Jake & Logan Paul, and it seems directionless with his career.
With a net worth estimated at $10 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Ryan Garcia is making the kind of money that popular world champions are without him needing to fight for world titles.
This begs the question, does Ryan even need to fight top-level fighters to continue to make big bank?
Unfortunately, many boxing fans now view Ryan as an ‘Instagram boxer,’ a guy who posts many video clips of him hitting the speed bag, preens for his millions of followers, but then never fights anyone with a pulse.