By Charles Brun: Matchroom Eddie Hearn has already started putting the wheels in motion to match the popular lightweight star Ryan Garcia against his fighter Maxi Hughes for a summer fight in Yorkshire in the UK.
Before Golden Boy Promotions can pull the trigger on Hearn’s idea of King Ry fighting #15 WBC Hughes (25-5-2, 5 KOs), Ryan will need to defeat his comeback opponent Emmanuel Tagoe this Saturday night on April 9th at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Tagoe (32-1, 15 KOs) has won his last 32 fights, and he’s not going to roll over for Ryan. This guy is tough and will be coming to overturn the applecart on Saturday night in their headliner on DAZN. As vulnerable as Ryan looked in his last fight against Luke Campbell, a victory for Tagoe is not out of the question.
Ryan might not be willing to agree to fight the little-known Hughes because he wants to face quality opposition, and he’s not going to impress his loyal fans or win over new followers if he’s facing bottom-feeder-level contenders selected by Hearn.
In theory, this idea would be helping both fighters, as Hughes (25-5-2, 5 KOs) would be getting an opportunity to fight a huge name, whereas Ryan gets another sure-thing win over a tune-up level opponent.
The Garcia-Hughes fight does more for Hearn & Hughes than it will for Ryan because it won’t increase his popularity in the United States, nor will it bring in a lot of new subscribers to DAZN.
“I called Eric Gomez and said, ‘Let’s bring Ryan Garcia to the U.K.,’” said Hearn to The DAZN Boxing Show about his desire to match him against British domestic-level fighter Maxi Hughes in the summer.
“I want to give Maxi Hughes this big opportunity where we can do a big outdoor event in Yorkshire. Bring Ryan Garcia, it’ll be wild. For me, once he gets through Tagoe, they’ve got to keep him active,” said Hearn.
Other than Hughes giving Ryan the opportunity to hide out in a foxhole for a little while longer from the talented fighters at lightweight, the fight does absolutely zero for him.
If you’re Ryan, you should pay attention to what happened with Demetrius Andrade, one of Hearn’s fighters from the United States.
Instead of Hearn matching Demetrius against notable opposition that would increase his popularity and help him apply pressure to get the big names to fight him, he put him in with these guys:
- Jason Quigley
- Liam Williams
- Luke Keeler
- Maciej Sulecki
Not surprisingly, Andrade’s popularity failed to increase and he’s now moving on after failing to get any of the big names to face him.
“You’ve got Gervonta Davis fighting at the end of May, so he won’t be ready until September or October. Let’s get Ryan Garcia over in the summer,” said Hearn. “We’ve got a couple of lightweights, but I’d love to give the opportunity to Maxi Hughes.”
If Ryan is going to fight in the UK, he should at least face a British fighter that is popular and will give him a good fight.
With Ryan’s future at 135 being uncertain due to his match against Tagoe taking place in the light-welterweight division, he should take on one of these light-welterweight contenders in the summer:
- Montana Love
- Jack Catterall
- Sandor Martin
- Ohara Davies
- Lewis RitsonGar
