Ryan Garcia has reportedly selected Rolly Romero as his May 2nd opponent in Times Square, New York. It’s surprising to fans that Garcia personally picked 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 Turki Al-Sheikh’s May 2 card. Devin Haney will take on Jose Ramirez in a main support bout. It should be flipped, 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 followers on Instagram and that’s why he’s in first place against Romero.
Boxing fans will give Ryan a pass to use Rolly as a PPV tune-up as his next fight will be a rematch with Devin Haney in October. So they’ll put up with Garcia taking a can of tomatoes to 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 ability to chatter outside the ring. That’s the main thing Romero is good at. He is a limited fighter, but he connects with fans through 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 has had poor performances against Ismael Barro, Manuel Jaimes, Gervonta Davis and Jackson Marinez.
Initially, there were talks between Garcia (24-1, 20 KO) and Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz. However, he decided not to take the fight as he was scheduled to fight Angelo Fierro on February 1st. Cruz wanted to wait.
So Ryan went with Romero (29) as his opponent. Pitbull deciding not to take the fight with Garcia is what messed things up. But even when he decided not to match Kingry, a better opponent than Rolly could have been found.
Ryan’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, was interested in Teofimo Lopez as an opponent, but went with Rolly instead.
