By Jim Calfa: Oscar De La Hoya says he’ll be meeting with Ryan Garcia this Tuesday to discuss his future and a possible fight against Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz.
De La Hoya says the 23-year-old highly ranked Pitbull Cruz (23-2-1, 16 KOs) is the fight Ryan wants, and the boxing public is interested in seeing it.
Cruz is coming off a fifth-round knockout win over Yuriorkis Gamboa on April 16th, and he’s already expressed interest in wanting to fight Ryan next.
So unless De La Hoya isn’t serious about wanting to make the fight with Pitbull Cruz for Ryan, it should be an easy one for him to put together.
De La Hoya says there are “many options” available for Ryan to fight next, but he’s not saying who those fighters are.
It’s believed that De La Hoya is eager to match Ryan against former IBF super featherweight champion Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz Jr.
He’s coming off a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss to WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney last December, and he has no punching power to worry Ryan.
Jojo, 29, is arguably a safer fight for Ryan than putting him in with Pitbull Cruz, which would put King Ry in the position where he’d had to deal with his powerful inside game.
It would be a no-win situation for Ryan Garcia if he were to fight Jojo Diaz because even if he beats him, fans will point out that he was recently beaten by Devin Haney last December. Diaz has won only one out of his previous three fights.
We’ve been down this road before, with De La Hoya saying he was interested in matching Ryan against Isaac Cruz in January, but the negotiations never started.
Instead, Ryan fought 33-year-old little-known fringe contender Emmanuel Tagoe on April 9th, and fans were not impressed with the opponent or King Ry’s performance.
Ryan won the fight by a 12-round unanimous decision with the scores 119-108, 118-109, and 119-108.
“I’m having a meeting with Ryan Garcia tomorrow to talk about his future,” said Oscar De La Hoya to the media on Monday in Los Angeles.
“We’re very vocal about Isaac Cruz, and that’s the fight he wants,” De La Hoya continued about the 23-year-old Ryan Garcia’s next contest.
“But there are many options out there, but that’s the one fight that people want to see. Why not make it happen? We’re all for it.
“Ryan Garcia needed this fight here [against Emmanuel Tagoe] after a 15-month layoff to shake off the cobwebs. Now, we move on to bigger & better things,’ said De La Hoya.
Now that Ryan’s tune-up fight is out of the way, he should be ready to take on Pitbull Cruz next.
Oscar, while I understand your desperation in showing @RyanGarcia you are doing SOMETHING on his behalf in your role as his promoter, do you think putting out a falsehood like this will impress him? https://t.co/I7y01mmD25
— Sean Gibbons (@KnuckleheadSean) January 6, 2022
