Ryan Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) announced earlier Tuesday that he’s ready to return to the ring in October in Los Angeles, California. After a brief ninth-month layoff, Ryan, 22, is ready to get back in there against potentially a top name in the lightweight division.
Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz Jr is one name that has been talked about on social media for Ryan, and it’s a fight that will create a lot of interest in the boxing world.
The former IBF super featherweight champion Diaz Jr (32-1-1, 15 KOs) beat Javier Fortuna last month on July 9th in a WBC lightweight title eliminator.
Diaz took the fight that Ryan Garcia was originally scheduled for, but he had to pull out because of a mental health anxiety problem.
October might be a little too early for Diaz Jr to come back from his fight with Fortuna because he suffered a cut in that fight, and that would be just three months of healing time. That’s probably not nearly enough for Diaz Jr’s cut to be fully healed by October.
If Diaz Jr isn’t available for Ryan, he should focus on a fringe contender so that he can rust out from his nine months of inactivity.
Ryan hasn’t fought since his fight with Luke Campbell last January, and he showed promise in that fight and a lot of flaws.
Campbell took advantage of Ryan’s habit of standing straight up like a stork by dropping him with a big shot in the second round.
It was fortunate for Ryan that Campbell could not finish him because he was clearly hurt, appearing to lose consciousness while on the way down to the canvas.
With Canelo Alvarez having departed Golden Boy Promotions, Ryan has become their new star of sorts. Although Ryan still hasn’t captured his first world title, he has the popularity of a champion.
In some ways, Ryan’s popularity mirrors that of Canelo when he turned professional.
While Canelo didn’t win his first world title until his sixth year in the pro ranks and 37 fights, he was already a star before he even won a belt.
The major difference with Canelo is that he was much busier than Ryan is with his fight activity, keeping a much busier schedule. Indeed, there’s no comparison between the two in the activity department. Canelo was learning on the job, fighting all the time against the good but not great position.
Unfortunately, Ryan’s low activity level is that of a world champion, fighting twice a year at best and not doing the most that he can to increase his star power the way Canelo did.
