Ryan Garcia is popular enough to land the title fight of his choosing.

His next fight will carry additional reinforcements beyond his star power.

The Ring has learned that Garcia’s upcoming clash with Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero will come with the WBA ‘World’ welterweight title at stake. Their scheduled twelve-round contest is due to take place this May at a location to be announced in the United States.

Eimantas Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs) holds the primary version of the WBA welterweight title. He previously held the same title now at stake for Garcia-Romero before he was upgraded to full titleholder last summer.

The unbeaten Lithuanian will next face Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs; 1 No-Contest), the reigning IBF titlist, in an April 12 unification bout at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Ennis and Stanionis will also vie for The Ring championship as the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked welterweights.

It is not out of the realm of possibility for the Garcia-Romero winner to experience a similar destiny.

Ennis is already being groomed to potentially face The Ring/WBO 140-pound titlist Teofimo Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs) later this year. Lopez is currently in talks for a Ring/WBO/IBF unification bout with Richardson Hitchins (19-0, 7 KOs) but has also expressed an interest in moving up to welterweight.

Future plans are also in place for Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs; 1 NC) with a win in May.

The 26-year-old from Victorville, California is being groomed for a rematch with Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs; 1 NC) in October, with wins by both in separate bouts on the same May show. Haney, The Ring’s No. 10 pound-for-pound entrant and No. 1 junior welterweight contender, will face former unified 140-pound titlist Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) in his welterweight debut.

The May event will be called Fatal Fury: City of The Wolves - as part of a collaboration between Ring Magazine and SNK Games. The game is scheduled for an April 24 release, with those who pre-order enjoying early access on the 21st, only available on PlayStation, Steam and Xbox.

Las Vegas’ Romero (16-2, 13 KOs) will also fight for the first time at welterweight. The former secondary WBA lightweight titlist and WBA 140-pound titleholder weighed slightly above the junior welterweight limit in a Sept. 14 ten-round, unanimous decision over Manuel Jaimes (16-2-1, 11 KOs) at T-Mobile Arena in his Vegas hometown.

Romero never previously weighed 139 ½ pounds, the mark he hit for each of his two fights at junior welterweight on the title level.

A controversial ninth-round stoppage of Ismael ‘Abuelo’ Barroso (25-5-2, 23 KOs) saw Romero claim the WBA 140-pound belt in May 2023. His reign ended last March 30, when Isaac Cruz (27-3-1, 18 KOs) stopped him in the eighth round.

Romero previously held the interim WBA 135-pound belt. It was removed from circulation after his sixth-round knockout loss to full titlist Gervonta Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) in their May 2022 title consolidation bout at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Garcia weighed beyond the 140-pound limit for each of his last two bouts, each of which were originally contracted for junior welterweight.

His Dec. 2023 eighth-round knockout of Oscar Duarte (28-2-1, 22 KOs) was ultimately fought at a 143-pound catchweight. Garcia came in right at that modified limit, a career-heaviest weight at the time. He surpassed that in his April 20 clash with Haney, where his mark of 143.2 pound left him ineligible to win the WBC junior welterweight title originally at stake.

Garcia initially won the fight via majority decision in their DAZN Pay-Per-View headliner from Barclays Center. The outcome was changed a No-Contest after he tested positive for the banned substance ostarine.

Neither Garcia nor Haney have fought since that night.

Assuming he weighs at or below 147 pounds, his upcoming clash against Romero will mark the second time he is eligible to win any form of a major title. Garcia won the interim WBC lightweight title in a Jan. 2021 knockout win over 2012 Olympic Gold medalist Luke Campbell in Dallas, Texas.

Garcia’s seventh-round knockout loss to Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) in April 2023 was fought at a 136-pound catchweight, with Davis’ WBA lightweight title not at stake.