Ryan Garcia reportedly chose Rolly Romero as his opponent on May 2 in Times Square, New York. It’s surprising to fans that Garcia chose Rolly (16-2, 13 KOs) because he’s not well-liked and was recently knocked out last year.
Garcia vs. Romero will be the main event on the Turki Al-Sheikh card on May 2. Devin Haney will face Jose Ramirez in the chief support bout. This should be reversed, with Haney-Ramirez headlining and Garcia-Romero co-main eventing. Ryan is more popular than Devin because of his 12 million followers on Instagram, and that’s why he holds the top spot against Romero.
Boxing fans will give Ryan a pass for using Rolly as a tuneup on PPV, as his next fight will be a rematch with Devin Haney in October. So they’ll put up with Garcia taking Rolly Romero’s can of tomatoes because he’ll fight Devin next.
Will Garcia regret it?
Garcia is counting on Rolly to generate interest in his fight with his ability to talk trash outside the ring. This is the main thing Romero is good at. He’s a limited fighter, but he connects with fans with bizarre interviews.
Yet he has done so poorly in his fights and hasn’t looked good in a fight in years. He was knocked out by Pitbull Cruz last March and performed poorly in fights against Ismael Barro, Manuel Jaimes, Gervonta Davis and Jackson Marinez.
Initially, there were discussions between Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) and Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. However, he chose not to fight as he was scheduled to fight Angel Fierro on February 1. Cruz wanted to wait.
So, Ryan chose 29-year-old Romero as his opponent. Pitbull choosing not to fight Garcia is what messed things up. But even if he had chosen not to win the match against Kingry, a better opponent could have been found than Rolly.
Ryan’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, was interested in Teofimo Lopez as his opponent, but he opted for Rolly instead.
