Ryan Garcia questioned Rolly Romero’s business sense based on the WBA super lightweight champion’s choice to fight Isaac Cruz next instead of him.
Garcia suggested during a lengthy interview with FightHype.com that Romero might make a fifth for facing Cruz of what he would’ve earned had Romero defended his 140-pound crown against Garcia. The polarizing Garcia acknowledged that he doesn’t know how much Romero will earn for meeting Mexico’s Cruz in the PBC pay-per-view co-feature before WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu and former WBA/WBC welterweight champ Keith Thurman square off in the main event, a 12-round, non-title match March 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Garcia also admitted that Floyd Mayweather helped change his mind boxing Romero next, when he initially intended to challenge rival Devin Haney for his WBC super lightweight title. The Victorville, California native’s team resumed negotiations with Haney’s handlers since Romero-Cruz was officially announced January 25, but Garcia offered his version of why Romero ultimately wound up finalizing a deal to face Cruz rather than him.
“We start talking to Rolly’s team,” Garcia said during the abovementioned interview with FightHype.com, which was posted to its YouTube channel Tuesday. “That’s working out. I just throw in Cruz’s name because I always wanted to beat his ass for a long time. Then I was like, ‘Let’s talk to everybody. Shoot, my options are open. I mean, I could make a fight with anybody. I don’t – they need me, in a sense, right?’ But I also need them in a way, where it takes two to tango, right? It takes two to fight. But ultimately, I have the more driving force. You know, they’re more, you know, they got boxing fans. I’m just a more well-known person is what I would like to say. That being said, I was trying to talk to everybody. Let’s go. Who wants this work? What makes the most sense? What’s the best deal? I guess Rollies took offense to that, said, ‘Eff you,’ you know, became dumb and then decided to go into negotiations with Cruz and then act like he’s in negotiations with me to try to use my name, and then, you know, sweep it under the rug and go and fight Cruz.
“They both used my name, pretty much, to build their fight off, when to me, it doesn’t make sense. Why Rollies, if I’m him, right? Why would I get beat up [in] a co-main event, for less money, when he coulda been the main event and get clipped against a guy that people actually will see as, ‘Oh, OK, but you lost to Ryan.’ Now when he gets knocked out, you get knocked out for significantly [less]. I don’t even know if he’s gonna make a million dollars this fight. He probably woulda made up in the $5 million range with me. And you really decided to get clipped for what, $950K maybe? I don’t know how much he’s getting paid. It could be less. But it just doesn’t make sense to me. Again, he just didn’t make the right move, I would say. You know, I still, I respect everybody, but he made the wrong move.”
The 25-year-old Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) ultimately made the wrong move when he changed his mind early this month about boxing Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) in his next fight, but the thought process was sound.
North Las Vegas’ Romero (15-1, 13 KOs), though a hard puncher, is seemingly more beatable than Haney, a former undisputed lightweight champion from Henderson, Nevada. Had Garcia beaten Romero, he would’ve strengthened his negotiating position for what would’ve become a title unification fight with Haney because Garcia would also have held a 140-pound title in that scenario.
“I sent my team to go talk to Devin Haney’s team,” Garcia recalled of how this process started. “I said, ‘This is what I want and this is who Imma fight.’ Then I invited the people to have a say in who I should fight next. Should it be Rolando Romero or should it be Devin Haney? The poll was close, but ultimately Devin Haney won. So, I wanted to give everybody that fight because the people voted and you should get what you voted for. Long story short, I’m in Vegas, I’m having a great time, I’m hanging out with Floyd. I’m not gonna lie, Floyd’s pretty influential.
“He’s like, ‘Why would you do that? Why don’t you fight Rolly for the belt, and then fight Devin Haney?’ [He] gave me advice. I said that makes pretty much sense, but I told the people already Imma fight Devin. He said, ‘You know, some things change.’ I said, ‘OK.’ Basically, [that’s] what he said. I’m paraphrasing here. It’s a lot deeper than that and there was a lot more conversation. But Imma save that. And then I made a quick decision. ‘OK, Floyd, that makes sense. I’ll go get another belt. I’ll go get the [WBA] belt,’ which I was down to do.”
Garcia again hopes Haney is his next opponent in a DAZN Pay-Per-View main event targeted for April 20. Meanwhile, Cruz (25-2-1, 17 KOs) opened as a 2-1 favorite to defeat Romero.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.