Ryan Garcia finally got his hands on a world title on Saturday night and promoter Oscar De La Hoya is already eyeing up his next opponent, admitting that there is one standout candidate that would make for an ‘exciting’ scrap.
Garcia was scheduled for a first world title challenge two years ago, but he lost the opportunity to win Devin Haney’s WBC super-lightweight world title when he missed weight the day prior.
The contest went ahead and ‘King Ry’ pulled off the upset in a dramatic career-best win, only for that victory to be taken away from him when he tested positive for a performance enhancing drug, Ostarine, during the aftermath.
Following a one-year ban, Garcia bounced back in a bid for Rolando Romero’s WBA regular welterweight crown, where victory would supposedly tee up a grudge match rematch with Haney. However, Garcia fell short, with Romero retaining his title with a lop-sided unanimous decision triumph.
At the weekend, however, Garcia was able to dethrone Mario Barrios to become the new WBC welterweight world champion, a win that appeared to set up a showdown with mandatory challenger, Conor Benn, but that isn’t the only big fight out there.
In an interview with Fight Hub TV, De La Hoya revealed that he wants to revisit the rematch with Haney, who now holds the WBO welterweight title, believing that the event would be even bigger now that it would be a unification affair.
“I would like to see that fight, actually, with Devin Haney. I think that will be more exciting than them fighting in New York last year. It’ll be a big match-up, bigger than the first time around, it will be huge here in Las Vegas, so I would love to see that.”
Haney is also being linked to a meeting with former lightweight ruler, Keyshawn Davis, for what would be his first outing of 2026.
