Ryan Garcia was knocked down for the fourth time in his career before losing on points to big underdog Rolando Romero.
The 26-year-old superstar looked to bounce back from a one-year doping suspension this weekend in Times Square, taking on ‘Rolly’ on the same card as Devin Haney faced Jose Ramirez with the hope of hyping a Haney rematch for late 2025.
Romero flipped the script, scoring a big knockdown in the second round before boxing well to a gameplan to take an impressive and disciplined unanimous decision win, the best of his career by far.
Speaking post-fight, Garcia was asked to give his verdict on his opponent’s power.
“Rolly, I think, is much better than people give him credit for. He has very strong hands. Solid in general. You can’t just walk in there and get anything on him, he does hit hard.
“I feel like the most I’ve ever been dazed was with Luke Campbell. I was actually dizzy with Luke Campbell, with Rolly I wasn’t dizzy. I was just like, ‘oh, there it goes again, on the canvas again!’ I don’t really get too out of it. It’s always a flash knockdown for some reason and I get right back up.
“He had potential to hit the hardest though. He definitely had some power.”
Speaking on his next move, Garcia said he would likely stay at welterweight now and would be interested in both running it back with Romero or still proceeding with the Haney rematch – a fight that had the potential to be one of the biggest of the year but, following this loss and Haney’s extremely underwhelming win on the same card, has suffered drastically.
