Ryan Garcia has enrolled in VADA for drug testing before his May 2nd warm-up fight against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero at Times Square in New York City.
Lance Pugmire reports that Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) has signed up for VADA to set the wheels in motion for his three-fight deal with Turki Al-Sheikh. This will make Devin Haney and his dad, Bill Haney, happy. Of course, Devin may not be around to fight Ryan if he gets destroyed by Jose Ramirez on May 2nd.
Dev has been given an undercard slot on Turki’s Garcia vs. Rolly event. That’s got to be a tough pill for Devin Haney to swallow, losing his position of honor as a headliner and being demoted to the undercard. If Haney loses to Jose Ramirez, he could fall even further than co-feature. It can get worse.
Charity Fight?
The plan is for Kingry to face the recently knocked out Rolly (16-2, 13 KOs) in what Garcia calls a “Charity’ case, then potentially face Devin Haney in a rematch in October. The third fight for Ryan could come against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis in February 2026.
Fighting Rolly is an awfully poor matchup for Kingry, as he’s facing a guy who was knocked out in the eighth round by Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz last year on March 30th. Garcia wanted to fight Pitbull, but the recently beaten former WBA light welterweight champion reportedly didn’t want to negotiate a fight before his February 1st clash against Angel Fierro at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Rolly Romero was obviously chosen as Ryan Garcia’s backup because the boxing public is familiar with him from his fights against Gervonta Davis, Ismael Barroso, and Pitbull Cruz. Still, Rolly is a low-quality opponent for Ryan, and there are many fighters at 140 with more talent but less name recognition.
You could blindly pick from anyone in the light welterweight top 15 and wind up with a far better choice for Garcia to fight than Rolly Romero. I’d rather watch Garcia risk taking a loss by fighting one of the young guns than see him destroy Rolly in the main event of a PPV card.
Mercado Too Risky
The Matchroom-promoted young talent, Ernesto Mercado (17-0, 16 KOs), would be ideal to use as Ryan’s opponent, but he would be too dangerous. Mercado looks like he could be the next star for the 140-lb division. He’s going to be avoided by everybody.
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