Ryan Garcia has fought once at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds.
Garcia would be the first to tell you that fight, his 12-rounder against huge underdog Rolando “Rolly” Romero, amounted to the poorest performance of his career. Once Romero dropped Garcia in the second round, he seemed reluctant to engage and appeared to accept defeat in their fight for the WBA’s secondary welterweight title.
The decisive loss cost Garcia a huge payday for a rematch with rival Devin Haney that tentatively was targeted for last month.

One judge, Waleska Roldan, went as far as to score 10 rounds for Romero, who won 118-109 on her card May 2 in New York. The two other judges, Tony Paolillo and Tom Schreck, scored Romero a 115-112 winner in the main event of The Ring’s outdoor card at Times Square.

Garcia, 27, fought for the first time in more than a year that night because his previous performance in a majority-decision victory over Haney was negated after he tested positive for Ostarine, a performance-enhancing drug. The Victorville, California, native, who also came in three-plus pounds overweight for that 140-pound title fight, was suspended for a year by the New York State Athletic Commission and fined $1.2 million.

The WBC also suspended Garcia in July 2024, not long after his win against Haney was changed to a no-contest, after making racist remarks on social media. Mauricio Sulaiman, president of the WBC, announced this week that Garcia’s suspension has been lifted.
The timing of the WBC’s announcement regarding Garcia shouldn’t shock anyone. It coincided with the news first reported by my Ring colleague, Mike Coppinger, that negotiations are ongoing for Garcia to challenge WBC welterweight champ Mario Barrios in his next fight sometime early in 2026.

Approving Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs, 1 NC) for a welterweight title fight despite everything explained above is egregious, even by WBC standards.

The polarizing Garcia isn’t ranked among the WBC’s top 15 contenders in the 147-pound division. Surely, though, his knockout of Oscar Duarte in December 2023 will warrant Garcia’s convenient insertion soon enough into one of the spots that’ll allow him to challenge Barrios.

Assuming their handlers reach an agreement, Sulaiman somehow will attempt to justify sanctioning Barrios-Garcia as a welterweight title fight. Or maybe he’ll ignore the criticism, much the way he’d have to disregard Garcia’s last two years in boxing to grant him an undeserved shot at Barrios’ belt.

No Reason To Applaud Paul, MVP
Jake Paul and his business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, didn’t do anything noble this week. They knew they had no choice but to scrap Paul’s ill-conceived exhibition with Gervonta Davis and simply acted accordingly.

Their company’s most commendable contribution to boxing has been its consistent commitment to affording women opportunities and paydays they otherwise wouldn’t have received. It would’ve sent a conflicting, disgusting message to the women MVP Promotions represents if they then ignored yet another domestic violence incident involving Davis just to keep their November 14 event intact.

It’s surprising, frankly, that Paul didn’t draw more criticism for doing business with the unbeaten WBA lightweight champion given Davis’ history of domestic violence and the fact that MVP has 31 women champions, contenders and prospects under contract.

Initially ignoring Davis’ behavior to arrange another Netflix spectacle was what made Paul’s over-the-top outrage once their fight was canceled come across as disingenuous.

Lubin’s Comeback Underappreciated
Eight years after his catastrophic first-round knockout loss to Jermell Charlo, Erickson Lubin is still taking the most dangerous assignments in the junior middleweight division.
The courageous contender didn’t hesitate to accept a fight against knockout artist Vergil Ortiz near his hometown Saturday night in Fort Worth, Texas (DAZN; 8 p.m. ET).
Ortiz is the third straight undefeated opponent for Lubin (27-2, 19 KOs), who passed on a mandated shot at Bakhram Murtazaliev’s IBF junior middleweight title in part because he knows upsetting Ortiz would do more for his standing in boxing than becoming a champion for the first time in almost 12 years as a pro.

Win, lose or draw in what figures to be a fan-friendly fight versus Ortiz (23-0, 21 KOs), Lubin’s ability to rebuild his career and compete at the top level for so long after Charlo clipped him is one of the most remarkable comebacks in modern boxing history.

That devastating defeat in October 2017 could’ve ruined Lubin, but the resilient southpaw from Orlando, Florida, wouldn’t allow it, not even after he was stopped by Sebastian Fundora in their unforgettable brawl 3½ years ago.The Final Bell
■ Robert Garcia, Ortiz’s trainer, claimed this week that if Jaron Ennis genuinely wanted to fight, the former unified welterweight champ would’ve invited his nemesis to sit ringside for his pointless two-minute blowout of Uisma Lima on October 11. It was in Ennis’ hometown of Philadelphia. Ortiz, of course, was immersed at that time in training camp almost 3,000 miles away for his fight with Lubin and wouldn’t have flown clear across the U.S. even if Ennis or promoter Eddie Hearn begged him to come. Furthermore, why would Ennis and Hearn commit to sit ringside for Ortiz-Lubin if they don’t want Ortiz next?
■ There are entirely too many overpriced pay-per-view shows in the United States these days. But putting the Badou Jack-Noel Mikaelian rematch on that platform December 13 seems particularly audacious, even for $40. Their second fight for Jack’s WBC cruiserweight championship will be the fourth of five pay-per-view events in a six-week span, including three Ring cards.
■ Claressa Shields said Thursday she wants to fight former Olympic teammate Mikaela Mayer next. If a promoter makes it worthwhile financially for these friends to fight, it’ll be interesting to see how much weight Shields would be willing to shed to ensure that it happens. Mayer doesn’t want to go higher than 154 pounds, the weight at which she dominated Mary Spencer in the WBO welterweight champ’s junior middleweight debut last week. Shields, 30, hasn’t made 154 pounds in nearly five years and has weighed at least 173½ pounds for each of her past three fights.

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing