Ryan Garcia assures Joseph Diaz fight is imminent
In modern boxing, there’s nothing unique or novel about fighter’s jaw-jacking at one another via social media. These days, it’s pretty much par for the course. This is exactly what Ryan “King Ry” Garcia (21-0, 18 KO’s) and Joseph “Jo Jo” Diaz (32-1-1, 15 KO’s) have been doing on their accounts. For his part however, Garcia wants it to be known that the tough talk is more than mere bluster. In a recent interview with Fight Hub TV, he doubled down on the validity of their behind-the-scenes negotiations.
“Joseph Diaz Junior, I am fighting him for sure. It’s like 95% done!”
THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE
Truth be known though, very few are asking for or are even overly excited about this bout. Both, Garcia and Diaz, have had the opportunity to face WBC world lightweight champion Devin “The Dream” Haney. Naturally one would think that a fighter would jump at the chance to compete for a title on a huge platform. Oddly, this is not the case with King Ry and Jo Jo. Each has offered lumpy, misshapen explanations as to why they are seeking fights elsewhere. Yet those rationalizations are about as useful as a hole-riddled umbrella.
Diaz is currently the interim WBC lightweight champion, making him Haney’s mandatory challenger. Instead, he is choosing to dance with Garcia with the presumption that the winner fights the Dream after. King Ry was once crowned the interim WBC lightweight champion as well following his win over Luke Campbell. Then, identically to Diaz now, Garcia tried to go in a different direction.
Before he could slip in the ring with anyone else however, the social media kingpin was sidelined by his calamitous emotional state and withdrew himself from the contest. He has yet to compete again since the Campbell bout. So essentially, this is the second consecutive time that King Ry has sidestepped Haney to compete in a lesser fight where the winner would logically fight Devin Haney.
DON’T TELL US, SHOW US!
Provided that dustup with Diaz comes to fruition, Ryan Garcia has made it more than evident that he does not foresee much of a challenge.
“[thoughts on Diaz versus Fortuna] He didn’t look good at all, I don’t know what anybody seen. He got hit, he was getting beat up, all in his face. I would have knocked out Fortuna in the first round, honestly…I’m always going to be in control of that fight, when I want to do something I do it and he [Diaz] is not going to be able to dictate anything. He doesn’t hit hard enough, he can’t do anything to me. He’s just going to be there to get knocked out and I go on to fight Tank or Devin, all the big names.”
Let’s just see what happens with these supposed negotiations. Admittedly though, it would be more interesting to see if the winner will finally elect to test their skill against Devin Haney.
By: Bakari Simpson
