Ryan Garcia’s Next Opponent Announced, He Will Face Oscar Duarte

In some recent boxing news, Ryan Garcia will face Oscar Duarte on December 2nd, 2023, for his first fight at junior welterweight.

That is according to Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya. Garcia’s last bout was against Gervonta Davis in the biggest fight of his career as he was stopped in the seventh round. During the course of that process, Garcia decided to change his trainer in the aftermath in the hope of becoming a better fighter. He departed from Joe Goossen by hiring Derrick James as his trainer in an attempt to work on his boxing fundamentals. Garcia’s lack of defensive skills were exposed as he was countered by Davis in the second round, which sent him to the canvas and changed the course of the fight.  And now Garcia has another challenge on his hands.

Garcia’s Return

“Here you have a guy [Duarte] who’s coming off 11 KOs in a row. There’s a guy who’s a power puncher who’s going to come forward and make Ryan fight. It’s the proper fight after a knockout loss to Gervonta,” De La Hoya

The announcement was also significant for another reason. The agreement had shown that Garcia and De La Hoya are capable of working together despite their differences.

The duo have been involved in legal action after disagreements over their contractual agreement. Garcia alleged that his contract had been breached, while De La Hoya sought to make Garcia honor the contract.

Although there is currently an attempt to do mediation, De La Hoya is aiming to make Garcia one of the biggest stars in the sport. And given that he did earn a reported $30 million in the Davis fight, Garcia’s commercial power is there for everyone to see.

De La Hoya On Garcia

“It’s business as usual. We have a couple of pending issues that should not impede any type of progress moving forward. I truly feel that we’re going to get this behind us and then move on with his career. We’re looking to do a major, major fight with Ryan, possibly around Super Bowl weekend. I would love to talk to Bob [Arum] to see what’s going on with him and Teofimo [Lopez], but there’s other options as well,” De La Hoya

Haney On The Shakur Fight

Just as Garcia’s next fight has been announced, Devin Haney opened up on the failed fight between him and Shakur Stevenson.

Stevenson is the current WBC mandatory for the belt at 135 pounds, as a fight with Haney seemed to be on the cards. Although that may have been the case, the Dream decided to move up to 140 pounds to fight Regis Prograis for his WBC belt.

In and amongst that, Haney had offered Shakur 25 percent in order to make the fight happen. However, Stevenson rejected the offer on the basis that it did not reflect his value.

This is even though it would have been the highest purse of his career. And now Haney has given his say on the matter after suggestions that he had ducked Shakur.

“The world seen what happened. We sent him an offer, he countered the offer with 50/50…first we tried to give him a flat fee, he said he didn’t want that, he wanted a percentage. We offered him the 25%, he said he don’t want the 25%, then he said he wanted 50/50. Then he said I was a bitch, right? But that’s the same thing he just offered Frank Martin. How,” Haney

Those comments are understandable in light of what Haney had to do in order to become undisputed at lightweight. The American faced George Kambosos Jr. on two occasions in order to win and then defend his belts.

But in doing so, he had to go to Australia twice and take a pay cut. But given that Haney believed in his skills, he did whatever he had to do to become the A-side. And that is why Haney criticised Shakur’s approach in not taking the offer.

“And I’m the guy with all the hardware. I did the same thing to become undisputed. I took less, I took 22%. Not once but twice, and I had to go to another network, and I had to go to Australia. And I was champion. He don’t have nothing in the lightweight division. So, it’s like, what do you call it? If you feel like you’re levels above me and I’m a bitch and all that, then you would take it, right?” Haney