As rising lightweight star Ryan Garcia gets back into the groove of things following his short stint away from the sport, his handlers are naturally in talks to plans his awaited return. Garcia is formally back in training and ESPN’s Mike Coppinger cites sources who indicate there’s potential for Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) to take on Joseph Diaz Jr. (32-1-1, 15 KOs), who’s also been rolling lately. Early indications are the bout could come together for this fall in Los Angeles and Diaz is already talking up his expectations for the bout.
“I’m going to take him to a place he’s never been before, physically and mentally,” Diaz (32-1-1, 15 KOs) told ESPN. “Ryan Garcia, I feel like he’s a very talented fighter but he’s never been in the ring with the guys I’ve been in the ring with: some warriors trying to take your head off, not guys I’m going to put on a highlight reel. If this fight doesn’t get made, it’s not on my end — it’s on theirs.”
This potential fight shouldn’t have many obstacles with both fighters under the same promotional banner at Golden Boy, but if we know anything about boxing it’s that nothing is a sure thing. Optimistically speaking though, the idea of the fight is truly a good match-up and realistically should be an easy sell in Los Angeles.
Diaz is most recently coming off a solid performance to beat Javier Fortuna earlier this month while Garcia fought at the top of the year, stopping good ol’ Luke Campbell in a real statement victory.
