Lighweight Ryan Garcia knocked out Jose Lopez last Saturday night at the Fantasy Springs Resort in Indio, California, on DAZN. Following his victory, Garcia says he’s ready for a shot at the world title.
Lopez (24-4-1, 14 Kos) did not return for a third round after being badly hurt by Garcia. This seems to have boosted Garcia’s confidence a great deal. Garcia (18-0, 14 Kos) now feels he’s a title contender.
On the issue, Garcia said,
“I don’t know who the world title shot will be against. I’m just looking for the opportunity. I don’t care who it is. Whoever the champion is, that’s alright to me. I will assess it, and do whatever I have to do to beat him.”
The current lightweight champions are:
Vasiliy Lomachenko
Mikey Garcia
Richard Commey
Is he ready?
Garcia wants to fight on the DAZN Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Danny Jacobs card on May 4. The bout will go down at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vagas, Nevada. The question is whether or not Garcia’s promotions considers him a co-feature this early in his career.
Garcia said to Fighthub,
“I want to get back in there on May 4th. If they let me, I’ll do it. If not, it’s okay.”
Ryan Garcia’s confidence is admirable but he’s still relatively new to the boxing scene. Additionally, he doesn’t exactly mix with big names like Lomachenko, Mikey Garcia, and Commey. To get in for a co-feature he needs to be able to turn enough heads.
No one can deny that Garcia is an extremely skilled fighter. However, his inexperience is one reason that a World Title fight will end badly for him. Skill is no substitute for inexperience and Garcia should know that and plan his career accordingly. In fact, he should waiting a couple more years and add a few more wins to his name. That kind of strategy will only improve his skill-set and ready him for Big Game.
Furthermore, it’s no secret that Golden Boy makes a couple of consistent mistakes that everyone knows about. His consistent mistakes include ill-aimed powers shots and retreating with his head high. These may seem like innocent little issues but they make Garcia a pretty easy target.
Garcia’s Next Fight
There’s also talk about a fight between Ryan Garcia and Rolly Romero but it’s likely that won’t happen. It’s unlikely because Garcia has a large fan following on social media. His fan following makes it a big risk for the promotions if the fight ends badly.
Garcia gave his opinion on his fight with Romero,
“I don’t need to name him. He doesn’t need a name, because he don’t deserve it. He didn’t do anything. He did a sparring match. He did alright. That’s it, really. He’s going to be happy if he gets money. He needs money. He said, ‘Ryan Garcia’s not going to take $200K…”
“… I said, ‘if I knock him out, Mr. Mayweather, you need to give me $1 million dollars for just mentioning it to me, and then I knock him out. Other than that, there’s no point. Give me $1 million dollars. Thank you.”
