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