Ryan Garcia Wants a Return Fight with Isaac Cruz
Having been out of the ring for going on one full year, lightweight boxer Ryan “King Ry” Garcia (21-0, 18 KO’s) is looking to stage a return. If given his choice, Garcia would target unified lightweight champion George Kambosos. However, Kambosos is likely to challenge WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney or Vasiliy Lomachenko. With this being the case, Garcia has refocused his attention on Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (22-2-1, 15 KO’s).
Technically speaking, King Ry has one of the more influential and recognized names in the division. For this reason, one would think that he could secure a bigger named opponent than Cruz. Despite his relative popularity however, Garcia has been greatly compromised by what many view as his flakey behavior. He has lost credibility due to shooting his mouth off about making fights with Manny Pacquiao and Gervonta Davis. Neither bout took place. King Ry, who is ranked #2 WBC, also abruptly withdrew from prizefights with Javier Fortuna and Joseph Diaz. As a result, many in the boxing world view the Californian as something of a ‘boy who cried wolf.’
GARCIA THE DOG TAMER?
Given his relative fall from grace, Garcia feels, as he told World Boxing News, Pitbull would make for an excellent return foe. In his last outing, on December 5, Cruz lost a very competitive unanimous decision loss to Gervonta Davis. Given how much trouble the tenacious Pitbull gave to Davis, Garcia believes he’d make for a splendid litmus test for him.
“Of course, I want to go right after [George] Kambosos. I told my team I want to jump right in and get him because I might as well go and get all the belts coming back. But it’s not gonna happen.
“People want me to fight first, but it’s okay. I understand. I’m just motivated to get back in the ring and a lot of people are high on this guy [Cruz] right now because he gave Tank a good fight, and I just think it’s a good matchup for me to get back into the ring after such a long layoff.”
THE BUSINESS OF BRUTALITY
Provided that Garcia pens a bout with Cruz, and beats him convincingly, that would be a major feather in his cap. On the flipside however, a shaky performance or loss at this point would be catastrophic.
“It’s not a guy who’s just an easy, gimme fight. He’s gonna offer some challenges to me, but I know I’m gonna be able to capitalize on all my advantages and everything that he brings to the game. It’s perfect for me. I’ve seen that style a million times.”
Naturally though, if King Ry defeated Cruz, it would be a perfect prelude to a dustup with regular WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis. So let’s see how the politics work out with Team Garcia and Cruz. If all goes well for King Ry, he could secure one of the major fights that he wants as soon as his second bout in 2022.
“That’s gonna be probably one of the biggest fights when it happens, me versus Tank, so it’s a perfect opportunity for me to show how much of a different level that I am than Tank. It will get people more interested. I’ve been trying to build this Tank fight for years and I think I’m doing a good job at it.
“Every time we fight we’re trending [on social media] and I think people are gonna go crazy when that fight actually happens.”
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By: Bakari Simpson
