Ryan Garcia seemed content to let a win run away from him as he fought Rolly Romero with a lack of urgency and failed to impress fans as he topped the bill in his ring return.
Ryan Garcia is now 24-2 after tasting a points defeat for the first time. The highly-touted social media sensation had been hoping to prove himself after a suspension for PEDs which tarnished his win over Devin Haney.
Garcia was beaten by Romero in sparring, and sought to avenge that loss too. Despite their spars, Garcia was the clear favorite to win the fight, even Bloody Knockout predicted Garcia would win, though one man seemed to know from the very start that the fight was not going to go the way most thought.
For Floyd Mayweather, it was a foregone conclusion that Romero would win.
Floyd Mayweather bet money on Rolly Romero beating Ryan Garcia six years ago
Six years ago, Mayweather said on video: “I’m putting the money up right now. If Ryan Garcia can beat Rolly, I’ll give him $200,000 cash […] Once he lost to Rolly, I don’t ever wanna hear him say Tank’s name again.”
The fight didn’t happen then, but Mayweather was proven right, as Garcia lost to both Romero and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis in 2023. Romero also lost to Davis one year earlier.
In 2019, around the time Mayweather said this, Romero was 9-0 whilst Garcia was 18-0.
Rolly Romero couldn’t speak until he was 11 years old
Romero spoke to Yahoo Sports on his troubled past, and how he wasn’t even able to speak properly until he was 11, and that he picked up boxing far later than his counterparts.
“People couldn’t comprehend me unless they were immediate family.”
“I know I speak a lot better now. I don’t know what it was, but little by little, I got better.”
From being unable to speak to winning a world title, Romero has proven doubters wrong time and time again and now has a career-best win over Garcia in an event that was slated by former world champion Tim Bradley. Bradley scolded Garcia, Haney, and Barboza for their poor performances and branded the whole event as ‘trash’.
Saturday night’s main event also failed to impress, as Canelo vs Scull set the record for fewest punches thrown in a 12-round contest.
Naoya Inoue, who won a title in his sixth fight, has the chance to redeem two lacklustre events as he fights Ramon Cardenas, who lost to a journeyman, this evening.