Ryan Garcia takes on Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero as the nominal main event as a card packed full of world-class talent assembles in New York, with a night of world championship boxing taking place at Times Square this Friday night.
Turki Alalshikh has put together the Garcia vs Romero card, with Top Rank, Matchroom and Golden Boy all offering promotional muscle and DAZN hosting the broadcast.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) started off as a lightweight, and gained big traction on the back of several stunning early wins, taking the interim WBC title along the way, but mental and physical health issues stunted his progress, and he was eventually beaten by Gervonta Davis in a 2023 grudge match, with Davis scoring an emphatic seventh-round knockout win.
Garcia would return at the end of 2023 with a win, and that led to a meeting with Devin Haney, and Garcia was superb in dropping Haney three times on the way to a majority decision win.
That victory was later soured by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association confirming that Garcia had tested positive for Ostarine, a performance-enhancing drug, the day before and on the day of the fight.
That result has since been changed to a no-contest. Romero (16-2, 13 KOs) is up next for ‘King Ry’ with both men moving up to 147 pounds for the first time.
Based in Las Vegas, Romero has also been a stoppage loser to Gervonta Davis, going down in six rounds in 2022, but he is a former WBA champion at super lightweight, winning a thriller in a ninth-round stoppage of Ismael Barroso in May 2023.
He would then lose the belt to Isaac Cruz in eight rounds last March, but returned to widely outscore Manuel Jaimes over ten last September.
Prediction: We hope to see a clean Garcia in this one, and Romero should be the ideal opponent to look good against. I fancy that Garcia will score a stoppage in the later rounds.
Haney returns against Ramirez
The undercard features the aforementioned Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs), and he also moves up to welterweight, taking on former unified super lightweight world champion, Jose Carlos Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs), also coming up in weight.
Haney cleaned out the lightweight division with clear points wins against the likes of Jorge Linares, George Kambosos Jr (twice) and Vasyl Lomachenko, and he then moved up to take the WBC super lightweight title, thrashing Regis Prograis on the cards before losing to Ryan Garcia, later changed to a no-contest.
Ramirez lost his WBC and WBO 140 pound belts to Josh Taylor in 2021, but then won three on the spin, but comes into this one off a ten round points loss to Arnold Barboza Jr last November.
Prediction: Haney will look to rebound from his last bout, and he can do that here with a clear points win.
Lopez and Barboza settle the score
The final championship-level contest comes at super lightweight, where Teofimo Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs) defends his WBO title for a third time against Arnold Barboza Jr (32-0, 11 KOs).
Lopez moved up in weight after a spell as unified lightweight world champion, and took the WBO belt at super lightweight by outscoring Josh Taylor in June 2023.
A points win over Jamaine Ortiz followed, and Lopez was last out in June 2024, taking a landslide win on the cards against Steve Claggett. Barboza took the interim WBO strap last time out, as he edged Jack Catterall in Manchester via split decision, and comes into this one on a long unbeaten run.
Prediction: Lopez may have that little bit more seasoning than his opponent, and he can pull clear down the stretch for a points victory.
Promising amateur standout Reito Tsutsumi makes his pro debut, and he can halt Levale Whittington (1-2-1, 1 KO) in their scheduled six-rounder at featherweight.
