Ryan Garcia: ‘Early 2022, I will return better’

By Boxing News - 10/18/2021 - Comments

By Jeff Aronow: Ryan Garcia is promising to return to the ring better in 2022 when he comes back from his hand injury that caused the cancelation of his November 27th fight against Joseph ‘Jo-Jo’ Diaz Jr. on DAZN.

Garcia, 23, was supposed to be getting surgery on Monday, but it’s unclear if he did.

Ryan (21-0, 18 KOs) suffered the hand injury during a sparring session, and it was just bad luck on his part, Before that, King Ry had been out of the ring since January of this year when he defeated Luke Campbell.

When Ryan does return to the ring in early 2022, he’ll have been out of action for over a year.

With that length of time off, it’s unlikely that Ryan’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions will want to take the risk of putting him in with a dangerous fighter like Jojo Diaz.

Image: Ryan Garcia: 'Early 2022, I will return better'

It’s crazy how Ryan’s year fell apart after his impressive victory over Campbell last January. That victory was supposed to lead to a title shot for Ryan against WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney.

Instead, Ryan chose not to take the fight, even though he had beaten Campbell in a WBC title eliminator.

Ryan said he wanted to fight Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, but he then changed his mind and went in the direction of a Manny Pacquiao.

When that fight didn’t happen, Golden Boy scheduled Ryan to face Javier Fortuna on July 9th. Ryan then pulled out of the fight due to an anxiety problem.

Some boxing fans believed that Ryan got cold feet at the idea of fighting the experienced former WBA super featherweight champion Fortuna, as he would have been a major step up in class. If Ryan couldn’t hurt Fortuna with his left hook, he may have been in trouble. It might have been fate that possibly saved Ryan from absorbing a loss.

Ryan’s best wins as a pro:

  • Luke Campbell
  • Romero Duno
  • Jose Lopez
  • Carlos Morales
  • Francisco Fonseca
  • Jayson Velez

“Very unlucky for me this year, breaking my hand from sparring just sealed the deal for this year. I won’t let this stop me from accomplishing my dreams. It’s a bad chapter but not the end of my book 🔥

“I want to thank my fans for all the continued support. We are postponing my next fight for a couple of months as a result of a significant hand injury that requires immediate surgery.

“I will undergo surgery at Cedars-Sinai on Monday. I promise early 2022 I will return better!” said Ryan Garcia on Twitter.

It would have been good to see Ryan face Manny Pacquiao or Tank Davis in 2021, as that would show what kind of talent he’s got. Unfortunately, with the way things are now, Ryan will likely be out of the ring for 13 to 14 months before he eventually fights again next year.

Ryan is still an excellent prospect, but he’s got to stay busy and stop calling out people and then not fighting them.  That looks bad on Ryan’s part if he’s going to be calling out people but then failing to face them.