THE planned exhibition fight between Ryan Garcia and Rukiya Anpo has been put back until next year.
Garcia was due to face the Japanese kickboxer under boxing rules on Tuesday, December 31 at the Saitama Super Arena. However, the bout has been postponed on medical grounds because of a hand injury suffered by Garcia in camp. The hopes are that the event can be rescheduled for spring 2025.
Commenting on the news, Garcia said: “I have been preparing diligently for the upcoming exhibition matches in Japan and have been training hard in Dallas for the last few weeks.
“Unfortunately, I injured my hand during training and had to return to Los Angeles to see a renowned specialist, Dr. Singh. Dr. Singh recommended that I postpone the fight on December 30. This is only a temporary setback, and we will be announcing a new date for the match soon. We sincerely apologize to our fans, FANMIO and RIZIN for the postponement. No one is more disappointed than me. Thank you for your support.”
Anpo chose trash talk, however, when he gave his reaction.
“I heard that Ryan was injured and had to stop. It’s a real shame. It’s really unfortunate, but there’s no point in beating Ryan, who can’t move due to injury, so I hope he recovers quickly and comes back with a 100% Ryan Garcia.
“Well, even if you were able to do it with me on New Year’s Eve, you would have been blown away by me anyway, injured and sent to the hospital, so no matter what happened, you would have been sent to the hospital.”
Garcia’s professional boxing career is on hold after he tested positive for the banned substance ostarine. The result of this overturned his initial win over Devin Haney at the Barclays Centre, Brooklyn in April to a no-contest. Garcia, 24-1 (20 KOs), was also banned for a year by the New York State Athletic Commission.
