Ryan Garcia has revealed his toughest opponent in 27 professional outings, rather surprisingly mentioning a fighter he defeated inside the distance.
Most would suspect the American’s “hardest fight” came against Gervonta Davis, who stopped ‘King Ry’ with a sickening seventh-round body shot in their 2023 encounter.
Alternatively, Rolando Romero gave Garcia a tricky night’s work in May 2025, when he scored a second-round knockdown before winning unanimously on the judges’ scorecards.
Devin Haney, too, represented a difficult opponent when they collided in 2024, with Garcia edging a majority decision before testing positive for banned substance ostarine.
As a result, his victory was overturned to a no-contest, following which Garcia completed a year-long suspension before returning to the ring against Romero.
Interestingly enough, though, the reigning WBC world welterweight champion does not consider Davis, Romero or Haney to be his toughest opponent.
Instead, the 27-year-old has told DAZN that his most demanding assignment came against Oscar Duarte, who he eventually stopped with an eighth-round finish in 2023.
“My hardest fight was Oscar Duarte – the one that Richardson Hitchins ducked. I knocked him out, but he was hard.”
Duarte was supposed to face Hitchins in February, only for the then-IBF world super-lightweight champion to pull out of their contest on the morning of fight night.
This was reportedly because Hitchins fell ill during his attempt to keep under 150lbs, as per the IBF’s 10lb rehydration policy.
While not having been given another world title shot, Duarte is now gearing up for his all-Mexican clash with Angel Fierro, which features on the undercard of Gilberto Ramirez vs David Benavidez this Saturday.
