Eddie Hearn wants to bring popular lightweight star Ryan Garcia to Great Britain.
Garcia returns to the ring on Saturday night after 15 months out when he faces Ghana’s Emmanuel Tagoe (32-1, 15 KOs) in San Antonio.
Should the unbeaten American come through Tagoe then attention will turn to the future. However, the likelihood of a marquee fight at 135lbs in the near future seems distant due to his rivals already tied into their next fights. George Kambosos will face Devin Haney for the undisputed lightweight world championship in June. Gervonta Davis faces Rolly Romero next month and Vasiliy Lomachenko is currently in Ukraine helping his country withstand the Russian invasion.
Hearn has an idea for Ryan Garcia’s next fight, however, and has already reached out to ‘KingRy’ promoters Golden Boy and spoken to the company President Eric Gomez.
“I called Eric Gomez the other day and said let’s bring Ryan Garcia to the U.K,” Hearn told the DAZN Boxing Show.
“We’ve got a young fighter called Maxi Hughes who won the IBO world title against Straffon, who’s defended it against Ryan Walsh. I want to give this kid the opportunity. Let’s go and do a big outdoor event in Yorkshire, bring Ryan Garcia, it’ll be wild.
“For me once he gets through Tagoe, they’ve got to keep him active. You got to keep this young man in the gym especially while you’re waiting for the mega fights to happen. We know Devin’s going to have to rematch Kambosos in Australia if he wins. That’s Devin out of the picture this year. If Kambosos wins he’s going to fight Lomachenko. So, really, all the belts are tied up this year. You’ve got Gervonta Davis fighting end of May so he’s not going to be ready till September/October.
“Let’s get Ryan Garcia out in the summer. We’ve got a couple of lightweights for him and Maxi Hughes, I’d love to give the opportunity to.”