{"id":385838,"date":"2026-01-03T15:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T15:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/385838\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T15:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T15:40:10","slug":"ryan-garcia-called-out-for-catchweight-fight-by-mini-mike-tyson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/385838\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Garcia called out for catchweight fight by ‘mini Mike Tyson’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Garcia<\/a> has been invited to enter a catchweight matchup that has been \u2018brewing\u2019 for \u2018almost three years,\u2019 despite reports indicating that he is gearing up to face Mario Barrios in February.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old was last seen losing to Rolando Romero<\/a>, the current WBA world welterweight champion, via unanimous decision in May.<\/p>\n

Back then, Garcia had only just returned from his year-long drugs ban, which he was handed by the New York State Athletic Commission after testing positive for ostarine.<\/a><\/p>\n

The lacklustre nature of his performance against Romero saw him dropped in the second round and handily beaten down the stretch.<\/p>\n

It was a far cry from his display against Devin Haney, who he floored three times and eventually outpointed in April 2024, before his majority decision victory was overturned to a no-contest due to the positive drugs test.<\/p>\n

Despite his lack of a win since 2023, when he stopped Oscar Duarte, Garcia is expected to secure an immediate world title shot, against WBC welterweight champion Barrios, on a reported date of February 21.<\/p>\n

While this appears to be the plan, \u2018King Ry\u2019 has now been called out for a fight against Isaac \u2018Pitbull\u2019 Cruz, who boxed to a fiercely-contested draw with Lamont Roach Jr last month.<\/p>\n

According to Cruz, who spoke with ESPN Knockout<\/a>, Garcia has remained on his radar for a considerable length of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat fight has been brewing for almost three years now, and I think it would be more than attractive to all of the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Cruz typically campaigning at 140lbs, he believes that an agreed catchweight between welter and super-lightweight could offer an ideal solution for both parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose would be points to discuss internally. I think [the fight could happen] in an intermediate category, or a [catchweight].\u201d<\/p>\n

As things stand, Garcia still plans o face Barrios in February, pending an official announcement, but a clash with Cruz \u2013 dubbed a mini Mike Tyson for his relentless style and praised by the heavyweight legend himself \u2013 may be an option later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Garcia has been invited to enter a catchweight matchup that has been \u2018brewing\u2019 for \u2018almost three years,\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-385838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}