Ryan Garcia has decided on the fighter he wants next, preferring to challenge Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero for his WBA light welterweight title in early 2024 rather than taking on the Devin Haney vs. Regis Prograis winner, Teofimo Lopez, or Shakur Stevenson.
Fighting Rolly will be a business-level fight for Ryan, and prove nothing because this guy isn’t one of the talented guys at 140.
DAZN will likely place the Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero clash on PPV, and fans will have to pay to see two fighters who are arguably far, far below the best at 140.
Ryan Garcia taking the easy road
Kingry feels that he’s doing the right thing by fighting Rolly next rather than the talented opposition at 140, as it gives him the chance to keep improving.
That would make sense if Ryan showed in his last fight against Oscar Duarte that he was capable of improving enough to compete with the best, but that’s not what we saw.
He looked so lost against Duarte that even if he took a half dozen building fights, he still wouldn’t have the technical ability or ring IQ to defeat fighters like Haney, Prograis, Teofimo or Shakur. Those guys are a different breed than Ryan.
Rolly hasn’t fought since his controversial ninth round stoppage of 40-year-old Ismael Barroso last May, and some fans believe he’s intentionally been stalling to wait on Ryan Garcia.
Romero obviously knows that if he were to fight pretty much anyone, he’d lose and then miss out on the payday against Ryan.
If Rolly couldn’t even beat a 40-year-old without the referee saving him in a fight that he was losing, he would have problems defending his newly won WBA belt.
Romero’s WBA mandatory is due against Ohara Davies, but it’s likely the sanctioning body will allow Ryan to leapfrog in front of him to challenge Rolly for his belt.
Interestingly, Ryan’s loyal boxing fans on social media support his decision to challenge Rolly (15-1, 13 KOs) rather than take on the above names.
Ryan looked like a clumsy oaf, showing no skills and turning his back frequently in a show of surrender while being bombarded by heavy shots by his opponent Oscar Duarte last Saturday night. Kingry claims he abandoned his attempts at using the shoulder roll, aka Philly Shell, by the fourth round, but he was still using it up to the eighth.
Obviously, they saw how unskilled the 25-year-old Golden Boy-promoted Ryan appeared against Duarte (26-2-1, 21 KOs) at the Toyota Center in Houston, and they realized that he would have no chance if he were to take on talents like Shakur, Haney, Prograis or Teofimo.
All of those fighters would make easy work of Ryan, expose him worse than Tank Davis did, and basically wreck his money-making ability, ruining his ability to capitalize on his 11 million Instagram followers.
Will Ryan step it up after Rolly fight?
“Me, I think Teofimo. I think it’s a good fight for both guys, and I think that’s the biggest fight to be made at 140 right now,” said Shawn Porter to DAZN Boxing on who Ryan Garcia should fight next.
Bring on Rolly the Polly 🤷♂️
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) December 3, 2023
“The reality is that in this new weight class, Ryan Garcia might have to do a lot of that because he’s going to be going up against some bigger fighters. The natural weight and size advantage you had at 135 pounds just maybe doesn’t exist anymore,” said Chris Mannix about Ryan.
Some would say that Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) is choosing to take another easy mark in continuing the type of opposition that he’s built the large part of his 25-fight resume.
The only time that the popular Instagram star deviated from his soft career path was when he fought Gervonta Davis and was destroyed in seven rounds last April.
“You’re talking about taking on the top guys like Regis Prograis now, a Devin Haney or Teofimo Lopez. These are big guys at 140 lbs. So this style of fighting where Ryan is fighting more off the back foot, more as a counter-puncher, that may become more of a part of his game plan than it ever has in the past,” said Mannix.
“Ryan, from round four onwards, on the back foot, and some might say on the bike. He’s moving around and causing problems for Oscar Duarte,” said Ade Oladipo. “Again, something we haven’t really seen from Ryan. That kind of backfoot, almost running away style fighting.”
A lot of people that supposedly was close to me was hoping I’d lose… tried their best to use every tactic to throw me off but my mental was protected and I had that full armor of God on 💙👊 #Godspeed
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) December 3, 2023
