Ryan Garcia admits he is hopeful of a future rematch with Gervonta Davis.
Garcia returns for the first time since a seventh round knockout loss to Davis in April when he faces Oscar Duarte in Houston on Saturday, live on DAZN.
Having moved up to 140lbs, the 25-year-old agreed to fight Davis at a 136lb catchweight and after making weight was not permitted to be more than 10lbs over the weight limit on the morning of the fight.
The Californian, who claims he was also carrying a rib injury into the fight, believes the weight cut depleted his body and his lack of ring activity contributed to his first professional defeat.
“A ton of things went wrong for me in that fight,” Garcia told DAZN Boxing.
“I think the first thing was the lay-off of a year and some change.
“I really wanted to fight him in October after [fighting Javier] Fortuna when I felt like my momentum was there.
“A lot of things killed that for me.
“Then my eagerness to fight him so bad messed me up because then I didn’t take the tune-up with Mercito [Gesta]. I didn’t want to ruin the chances to fight him and all those stipulations.
“I don’t want to go back to that. Like I said I signed it so it doesn’t matter, but those really do have an effect on you.
“I thought I could get around it, but fighting in that state is not fun. You don’t have the energy and you can’t do what you want to do.”
Garcia, who returns to 140lbs for his clash with Duarte, insists his sole focus is now on becoming world champion and WBO titlist, Teofimo Lopez revealed that he rejected an offer to face him.
‘King Ry’ has also been linked with the winner of the December 9 showdown between WBC champion, Regis Prograis and Devin Haney, although he has also opened the door to a rematch with ‘Tank’.
“We’re now focused on becoming the champion,” he added.
“That big fight was great, it did really well, but now I want to become a champion, establish myself as a champion at 140 and build from there.
“Hopefully we can run that back, because I know I’m capable of beating him in different circumstances.”
