Ryan Garcia seems to have all but confirmed a move up to super lightweight, and he has his eye on a world title fight.
The 24-year-old is fresh off the biggest fight of the year so far against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis – an unquestionable financial success, but a loss nonetheless.
He was downed by a body shot in the seventh round and didn’t get back up. It catapulted ‘Tank’ to new heights in terms of both stardom and respect as a fighter while Garcia was left to deal with the first loss of a 24-bout campaign.
The bout was at a catchweight of 136lbs, and Garcia was keen to point out that that condition made it massively out of his favour. His previous two fights were at or around 140lbs, and that’s seems to be where he’s heading now for good.
After splitting with trainer Joe Goossen and linking up with Derrick James, he’s keen on making fight plans, and took to Twitter to call out one of the champions of the 140 ranks – Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero
“Okay Rolly you asked for it. Let’s get it. This one is for Barroso.”
Two hours later, Romero tweeted simply ‘Done deal.’
He won the WBA Super Lightweight World title recently against Ismael Barroso via a wildly controversial stoppage in the ninth in which he appeared to connect with no real shot. Despite outcry in the aftermath, he’s champion now.
Whilst the Garcia fight is undoubtedly one of this biggest fights out there for Romero, he has obligations that may stand in the way. It was made clear by the WBA that he, as their champion, would have to face Ohara Davies.
In fact, the Brit let the pair know just that via his own message.
“Hey pr**ks, nothing goes down unless I’m involved. It’s my turn.”
The discussions to make the Romero-Davies fight are understood to be ongoing, so it’s highly unlikely that the Garcia deal is indeed done.
With his controversial title win and uncommon style, there’s no question that there will be a queue to fight ‘Rolly’ for the 140lbs belt, but who elbows his way out in first place remains to be seen.