Ryan Garcia’s next steps are being reconsidered after a disastrous last outing.
The 26-year-old had a lucrative rematch with Devin Haney on the table for the back end of 2025.
3
All the bitter rivals needed to do was win their respective bouts on Ring Magazine’s unprecedented Times Square card earlier this month.
Haney defeated Jose Ramirez over 12 pedestrian rounds to complete his side of the deal.
However, a gun-shy Garcia came up short in a shock upset loss to Rolly Romero, thus putting an end to the plans hatched by Saudi power broker Turki Alalshikh.
There had been reports in the days that followed which suggested the rematch may still go ahead next, regardless of Garcia’s mishap.
But ‘King Ry’s’ promoter Oscar De La Hoya put an end to such talk once and for all with a defiant statement.
“No, that’s not the direction we want to go [Haney rematch], zero whatsoever,” De La Hoya told Fight Hype.
“So I’m actually going to sit down with Ryan.
“I sat down with him already, and he’s in great spirits, we’re actually looking forward to the future, and we’re just going to nail down exactly what the plans are going to be and put it in play…
“Devin actually lost in winning. His stock is super down.
“People are talking about him just being a runner, not a boxer. This guy [Haney] is a runner. Why would I want to see that?”
3
Instead, De La Hoya suggested the ‘right move’ would be a rematch with Romero.
“Well, as a fighter, speaking to you as a fighter, not a promoter, that’s exactly what I would do, right? ” he added.
“So that would be the right move for him, I think, go get revenge, and you know in boxing you’re as good as your last fight, so might as well go.”
While Romero would no doubt consider running it back with Garcia, given the mega bucks attached to the fight, his sights are firmly set on major world titles.
“Every champion at 147 is in the mix,” Romero told Ring Magazine of possible dance partners for his next fight.
“There’s Brian Norman, there’s [Jaron Ennis] who has two belts.
3
“I’m pretty sure [Mario] Barrios has a fight lined up already, so we shall see.”
Should Garcia exact his revenge, then the second fight with Haney would surely be back in play.
There is serious bad blood between the pair stemming back to their controversial inaugural encounter.
Garcia was initially declared the victor via majority decision before the result was overturned to a no contest when it was found the Californian had failed two separate tests taken around the WBC title clash.
Haney went on to sue Garcia for battery, fraud and breach of contract weeks later, and they haven’t seen eye to eye ever since.
