Ryan Garcia is
set to face former WBA junior welterweight title holder Rolando Romero on a Ring Magazine card in May.
Garcia and Romero have long been linked to a fight against one another. Last year, the pair were close to striking a deal before Garcia instructed his team to secure a Devin Haney showdown instead.
One of the interested players in the 140-pound picture is two-time titleholder Regis Prograis, looking to revive his career after two straight unanimous decision losses to Haney and Jack Catterall when facing Oscar Duarte on February 14 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California on DAZN.
Prograis offered his prediction on how he sees the fight playing out between Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) and Romero (16-2, 13 KOs).
“Rolly and Ryan, I saw the sparring footage. I think that’s actually not a predictable fight because both of them are so wild and both can land punches,” Prograis told MillCity Boxing.
“Ryan can land big punches and Rolly can land big punches. I would say Ryan, but I don’t know if you saw the sparring. Rolly was beating the s--- out of Ryan in the gym. Rolly is wild and sometimes it’s hard to time and fight somebody like that.
“So I would go with Ryan but I’m not counting Rolly out until I hit him with something. I favor Ryan because he has more big-fight experience and stuff like that. He's a bigger star, has that hook but at the same time, Rolly is wild and could catch him with something. It'll be an interesting fight for sure.”
Garcia originally beat Haney last April during a matchup shrouded in controversy, dropping his divisional rival three times en route to a majority decision win.
The result was later overturned to a no contest, Garcia fined and given a one-year suspension after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug ostarine while Haney even filed a lawsuit against Garcia for battery, fraud, and breach of contract.
Prograis has previously labeled Romero as a s--- fighter and the least deserving champion at the time he held the belt, having beaten Ismael Barroso in controversial fashion in May 2023.
The only two losses of Romero’s career came against Gervonta Davis twelve months earlier and Isaac Cruz last March. Rolly returned to the win column by scoring a 10-round unanimous decision victory over Manuel Jaimes in September.
Set to be featured on the Garcia-Romero card is Devin Haney’s (31-0, 15 KOs) return against Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs). Should Garcia and Haney both win, a rematch is slated for a Riyadh Season show in October.
“If Devin can beat Ryan, he can show his greatness,” said Prograis. “If you can beat someone that beat you like that [it’s special]. When you take all the supplements that [Garcia] was taking, and we take that out [the rematch can be different] ... We can say whatever was in his system but that fight still happened. He still dropped him, hurt him, and dropped him three times. If [Haney] can come out of that and win, that would really show his greatness."
Manouk Akopyan is a lead writer for The Ring. Follow him @ManoukAkopyan on X and Instagram.