Ryan Garcia reveals his list for potential next opponent

Image: Ryan Garcia reveals his list for potential next opponent
Ryan Garcia Grand Arrival
By Boxing News - 05/31/2023 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Ryan Garcia revealed his three-fighter shortlist for his next fight this summer, and a couple of the names are decent.

Ryan (23-1, 19 KOs) will choose his next opponent from this list: Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero, Isaac Cruz, and Teofimo Lopez.

The fact that Ryan listed Rolly (15-1, 13 KOs) first suggests to some boxing fans that he’s the one that is the primary target. Rolly is the guy Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya recently said that he wants Ryan to fight next.

What makes Rolly, 27,  the likely next opponent for Ryan is that he holds the WBA light welterweight title, and that’s a strap that Kingry needs to show fans that he’s not just a social media influencer/boxer.

  • Rolly Romero: Rolly’s goofiness and ability to market his fights puts him ahead of the other two fighters on Ryan’s three-fighter shortlist. Unfortunately, the timing of this fight would be bad for Ryan’s career because Rolly is coming off of a controversial ninth round knockout of 40-year-old Ismael Barroso, and many boxing fans feel that the fight shouldn’t have been stopped by referee Tony Weeks. If Ryan were to fight the tainted champion Rolly now, he would be putting himself at the same level in fighting a paper champion instead of one of the quality guys. If Ryan wants respect from the fans, he would go in the wrong direction by fighting Rolly. Fighting him would result in contempt from fans. That’s fine if Ryan doesn’t mind being despised by fans.
  • Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz: Ryan says that Cruz (24-2-1, 17 KOs) would need to come up to 140 for the fight to be possible. Cruz, 5’4″, is small even for the 135-lb division, and he’d be giving away a lot of size. With that said, Cruz is too similar to Ryan’s last opponent Gervonta Davis, too formidable, too powerful, and too dangerous for him to be selected for Kingry’s next fight. Cruz isn’t going to be taken out by one of Ryan’s left hooks, which means he’s going to be around the entire fight, crashing huge hots off the chin and midsection of the popular Golden Boy fighter. The way that Ryan folded with the first body shot Tank hit him with, there’s a high probability that Cruz would take him out with a similar shot. Ryan and his promoter Oscar De La Hoya realize that Cruz is wrong for him. That’s why he likely won’t get the gig.
  • Teofimo Lopez: The former unified lightweight champion Teofimo would be a good option, but he will likely lose his June 10th fight against WBO light welterweight champion Josh Taylor. It would look bad for Ryan to select Teofimo with him coming off a loss to Taylor.