{"id":409877,"date":"2026-02-05T20:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409877\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T20:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:10:07","slug":"returning-former-champion-says-hell-eat-ryan-garcia-up-like-a-tic-tac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409877\/","title":{"rendered":"Returning former champion says he&#8217;ll eat Ryan Garcia up &#8216;like a Tic Tac\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/ryan-garcia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Garcia<\/a> is set to challenge for the welterweight world title in two weeks\u2019 time, but there is one former 147lb world champion who believes he will be able \u2018eat him up like a Tic Tac\u2019 if they meet down the line.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018King Ry\u2019 famously overcame Devin Haney in April 2024, only for his career-best win to be overturned to a no-contest due to Ostarine being found in his system.<\/p>\n<p>After a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazn.com\/en-US\/news\/boxing\/ryan-garcia-devin-haney-drugs-ban-ped-ostarine\/vypk15ol8kui1qgpu00rf43z4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">one-year ban<\/a>, Garcia returned last May in a fight for the vacant WBA welterweight title against Rolando Romero, but despite entering as the favourite, Garcia fell well short of expectations and <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/rolando-romero-drops-and-shocks-ryan-garcia-in-new-york\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">came away from the contest empty-handed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Garcia has yet another shot at welterweight honours, as the 27-year-old seeks to get back on track and move on from a difficult couple of years by overcoming WBC champion Mario Barrios to set up major title fights in a stacked welterweight division.<\/p>\n<p>However, in an <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/CwmMOCBvsDk?si=dUPWPFBljixrNK4t\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">interview with Fight Hub TV<\/a>, former unified welterweight ruler Keith Thurman played down the quality of the 147lb scene and claimed that he would eat up all of the top players at the weight \u2018like Tic Tacs\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou consider him [Garcia} as a welterweight puncher? You think Ryan has got a bigger punch than Ennis had?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe drops lightweights, he hasn\u2019t fought real welterweights. Is there even a real welterweight in the welterweight division? I think that Conor Benn is the only real welterweight left at 147lbs. This new welterweight game is lightweights moving up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no O.G. 147lber at 147 and, with that, I can\u2019t give Ryan the credit [as a puncher] that you are trying to give him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI could eat \u2018em all up like Tic Tacs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barrios-Garcia takes place on Saturday, February 21, at the T-Mobile Arena, whilst Thurman bids for Sebastian Fundora\u2019s WBC super-welterweight crown on March 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Garcia is set to challenge for the welterweight world title in two weeks\u2019 time, but there is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-409877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}