Two-division world champion Tim Bradley has declared that Ryan Garcia only has one route to a world title at super-lightweight after witnessing his comeback win against Oscar Duarte.
‘Super Ry’ bounced back from a first career defeat against Gervonta Davis back in April with an eighth-round stoppage win over the Mexican power-puncher, who had knocked out his last eleven opponents.
Ranked at #4 with the WBA, Garcia proceeded to call out their champion Rolando Romero after the bout, although Romero seems poised to instead fight the winner of the upcoming WBA Interim title clash between Ismael Barroso and Ohara Davies.
Reviewing the fight on Pro Box TV, Tim Bradley declared that Garcia would struggle to deal with front-footed pressure fighters after showing vulnerabilities against Duarte, stating that Romero is the only champion he could defeat, and that Subriel Matias (IBF) and Regis Prograis (WBC) would ‘murder him’.
“He’s turning his back like a scaredy cat, like a scared person would do, they would turn their back like that. Ryan Garcia has done that in the past, I’ve seen him do it in previous fights and it is always when he is under pressure. A guy like [Subriel] Matias would murder Ryan Garcia, a guy like Regis Prograis would murder him.
I would even go as far as saying [that] Devin Haney [would murder him], because we have seen Devin Haney march forward and put pressure on guys too. Ryan Garcia, is he a player at 140lbs? The one guy he can beat, the one champion that he can beat and that’s Rolly Romero, and he called out the weakest champion.”
The WBA have threatened to strip Romero of his belt should he not face either Barroso or Davies by March. However, both an injury to ‘Rolly’ and a visa issue regarding Barroso and Davies’ upcoming showdown mean that this deadline may be extended in the near future.