By Jimmy James: Undefeated lightweight Ryan Garcia recently said he was interested to pursue a fight against the newly crowned unified champion George Kambosos Jr., in an attempt to make a comeback after pulling out from two fights in a row against Joseph Diaz Jr and Javier Fortuna.
Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya also confirmed he would try to settle a deal to fight against Kambosos Jr to prevent him from fighting against the winner of Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz Jr vs. Devin Haney.
On the other hand, it is likely Mayweather Promotions will likewise show interest in a showdown with Kambosos Jr after he fights Mexican prospect Issac-Cruz Gonzalez, should Gervonta Davis end victorious this Saturday.
Gervonta Davis has a unique opportunity to snatch all the titles from the Australian and raise his stock even more, would he obtain all the titles. De La Hoya and Leonard Ellerbe might both start to send offers to Lou DiBella to make the fight happen: this would be a horrible idea!
Ryan Garcia and Davis have chosen the easy path in boxing by avoiding certain fighters in their division. Davis avoided Tevin Farmer and Vasyl Lomachenko in 130lb and Haney at 135lb; Garcia has literally avoided the entire Jr lightweight division for the past few years and has not done anything to deserve a title shot against Kambosos Jr. Davis and Garcia should instead fight each other and maybe, just maybe, earn a chance at a world title. They should focus their attention on each other instead of looking to steal the show on what could end in the dark ages in the lightweight division.
If Garcia or Davis were to beat Kambosos Jr, they would hold the belts hostage and not allow other dangerous fighters to gain access to the belts by avoiding them at will. This would down spiral boxing to the dark ages, as either one would end up choosing and picking opponents based on keeping their undefeated records intact as Floyd Mayweather Jr did in his era. Such a trend continues today as Canelo Alvarez avoids at will other boxers like Demetrius Andrade and David Benavidez, which he has no interest in fighting.
Eddy Reynoso would be licking his chops, hoping to get an opportunity for Garcia to fight against Kambosos Jr, which always results in controversy. Reynoso’s team is a controversial team, and since Garcia joined their club, he, among other fighters in that gym, had changed dramatically their ways of looking at the sport and acted suspiciously.
Eddie Hearn must secure a fight against the winner between Haney and Joseph Diaz Jr immediately before he gets outbid by rival promotional companies like Golden Boy or Mayweather Promotions. The winner of Diaz vs. Haney would set up a much-needed undisputed lightweight king in a division that hasn’t seen one champion in decades.
This whole undefeated record crap in boxing needs to stop, and we must cheer for fighters willing to risk their records to fight against the best like in the ’90s. Today boxing is pretty much a telenovela and it is time to have real champions fight against each other, instead of allowing boxers to do whatever they want, just because they feel they are untouchable.
Neither Davis nor Garcia have fought dangerous opponents, they have sneaked their way into the top by picking fighters they know had no chance of winning against them; they should not be pound for pound in any list imaginable. A fighter like Diaz has fought much better opposition and no one gives the man any credit whatsoever despite risking his record. Gervonta and Garcia should call each other out, and earn a title shot and leave Kambosos alone for the sake of boxing or whatever is left of it.