By Jeff Aronow: Ryan Garcia announced on Tuesday that he’d be getting back in action in October in Los Angeles. The popular 22-year-old ‘King’ Ryan will be coming off of a nine-month layoff to face a still to be determined opponent on DAZN.
Ryan has been dealing with mental health issues recently, and it’s gotten in the way of him staying active. However, he says he’s ready to return to action, so it appears he’s got everything together on the mental health side of things.
As one would expect, many boxing fans doubt that Ryan Garcia ever had any mental health problems.
They think he came up with that excuse to squirm out of a dangerous WBC lightweight title eliminator against Javier Fortuna. Since there’s no way of knowing whether Ryan truly had mental health problems or not, you have to take what he says at face value.
Joseph Diaz Jr, the possible opponent
He doesn’t have a track record of lying to get out of fights, and he’s always been transparent about his thoughts.
One potential option for the former WBC interim lightweight champion Ryan (21-0, 18 KOs) is Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz Jr. (32-1-1, 15 KOs) has already made it know that he wants to fight him next.
If Ryan faces Diaz Jr. in October, it’ll infuriate Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who was hoping that Jo Jo would face his fighter WBC 135-lb champion Devin Haney next.
Hearn would have a reason to be upset if Ryan and Diaz Jr fight, as both of them won WBC ordered lightweight title eliminators, and yet neither of them have chosen to use the mandatory status to challenge Haney for his belt.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya hasn’t mentioned who Ryan could face for his October fight. He’ll likely go with the idea of Ryan taking on the 28-year-old former IBF super featherweight champion ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz Jr despite him having a huge advantage in experience both at the amateur and professional level than King Ry.
With what Ryan went through with his mental health woes, no one will give him too much flak if he elects to fight a lower-level guy in his fight in October.
He’s been out of the ring for a while, and it’s probably a good idea for him to take a weaker fighter to use as a tune-up. Diaz Jr would be a difficult fight for Ryan, especially if he’s not 100% mentally ready for the match.
For the sake of his fans, Ryan Garcia needs to make sure he doesn’t pull out of his fight in October like he did for his July 9th match with Fortuna.
There are a lot of boxing fans that lost their trust in Ryan from that move on his part, and it would be a mistake for him to do it again. It’s not just Ryan pulling out of the fight with Fortuna that has fans believing he’s not reliable.
It’s the way that Ryan called out both Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Manny Pacquiao for ages and then didn’t fight either of them.
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