Bob Arum Doesn’t Hold Back On Ryan Garcia Being Knocked Down And Beaten By Rolly Romero

Veteran promoter Bob Arum has weighed in on Ryan Garcia’s defeat to Rolando Romero.

Garcia stepped through the ropes a heavy favourite against ‘Rolly,’ with a win guaranteeing him a rematch against Devin Haney after their controversial no contest last year.

The 26-year-old from California twice tested positive for a banned substance during that fight week, and this return at Times Square marked the end of his year-long suspension.

Garcia looked tentative after being dropped in the second round and failed to find any sort of success or rhythm thereafter. The unanimous decision win was a career-best for Romero, who had largely been counted out beforehand.

Speaking to Fight Hub TV, 93-year-old Arum passionately said that the matchmaking was to blame.

“Garcia has been off a whole year. This is a lack of real planning. He should’ve had a tune-up fight first and then go into a fight with a guy like Romero.

“These fighters and their promoters get turned by the money and they don’t make really good decisions. A good decision would’ve been to take a tune-up fight and then you move to Romero or Haney. You don’t go right in after a year [out].

“Anybody that knows boxing would tell Garcia that’s what he needs to do, but I guess the money that Turki [Alalshikh] put up was so big that they decided to go for the money. But that doesn’t make any sense.”

Post-fight, Garcia was humble in defeat and said that he was open to rematches with both Romero and Haney.