Ryan Garcia says he believes his fight against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero will take place on May 5th, on the Cinco de Mayo holiday.
If Ryan & Rolly take that date, they will compete with superstar Canelo Alvarez, who always fights on the Mexican holidays in May & September.
Canelo’s shadow looms
Canelo won’t be happy having Ryan-Rolly fighting on the same night on May 5th unless they’re part of his card on Amazon Video PPV. That’s always a possibility, too. The Mexican superstar Canelo will be fighting on the date, possibly against Jaime Munguia or Jermall Charlo.
Unfortunately for Canelo, fans won’t be too excited at seeing him fight either of those guys, so he and PBC will lose out on a lot of PPV buys if Ryan Garcia is fighting Rolly Romero on the same night on DAZN.
WBA light welterweight champion Rolando Romero (15-1, 13 KOs) is a PBC fighter promoted by Mayweather Promotions, meaning that he’ll be fighting on Amazon Video now due to Showtime no longer broadcasting boxing.
Ryan taunts Haney
“Devin lost his shot; he thought it was Haney vs. Garcia; he should’ve known it was Garcia vs. Haney. He did 35,000 PPV buys [against Regis Prograis],” said Ryan Garcia to InsideFighting about Devin Haney having lost his chance to face him due to his poor PPV numbers for his last clash against WBC 140-lb champion Prograis on December 9th on DAZN.
It sounds like Haney thought he was going to be the A-side for his fight with Ryan, believing that his WBC 140-lb belt had value for negotiating purposes. In this era of boxing, titles mean very little, thanks to the sanctioning bodies watering down each division with their numerous belts.
“He’s going to take that and go fight Richardson Hitchins. Devin Haney vs. Richardson Hitchins. I’m helping him out for his next move,” Ryan said while laughing. He got lucky.
There’s no chance on earth that Haney will defend his WBC title against Hitchins. Besides that being a difficult fight for Haney due to Hitchins being a pot-shot fighter just like himself, it’s a match that won’t sell on PPV, and the contest would likely bring in even worse numbers than his event against Prograis.
If Haney can’t convince Ryan or Gervonta Davis to fight him, his only chance for a money fight at 140 would be Teofimo Lopez, and that’s not going to happen due to network issues. Haney would have to move up to 147 and fight Mario Barrios or Keith Thurman. Those won’t won’t bring in PPV buys, either.
The guy that Haney needs to fight at 147 to make money is IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, but he obviously won’t fight him due to the high probability of getting destroyed.
“Rolly Polly, he just rolls into things,” said Ryan about Rolly Romero getting lucky, getting big fights falling into his lap. For sure [this being the biggest fight of Rolando’s career].
“I destroy that man. I see his eyes closed,” said Ryan when asked how he sees the fight between him and Rolly going. “I believe this fight is in May, May 5th.”
