Ryan Garcia: Lomachenko Knows I Can Fight; He’s Going to be Very Wary with My Sh!t

Ryan Garcia may not have had a fight in over a year, but the prolonged layoff clearly hasn’t affected his boldness.

The hard hitting lightweight contender recently called out former undisputed lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko during an interview on the Boxing with Chris Mannix podcast.

Garcia has been out of action since January 2020, when he stopped Luke Campbell in the seventh round of their 12-round lightweight bout at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. Garcia was projected to build on what many regarded as the most impressive win of his budding career in a fight against Javier Fortuna, but Garcia ended up pulling out of that bout, citing mental health issues.

The 23-year-old Victorville, Calif. native is set to return to the ring on April 9 to take on Emmauel Tagoe of Ghana at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

Still, despite his protracted sabbatical, Garcia is already eagerly charting how a future match-up with Lomachenko, a three-division titlist, would turn out.

“Lomachenko knows that I can fight,” Garcia said. “That would be a great fight because he’s shorter than me but he’s going to be trying to apply that pressure.”

There is no denying that Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) would be the smaller fighter in that match-up. According to BoxRec.com, Lomachenko, 34, is at least three inches shorter than Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs), a natural lightweight who stands at 5’10”. Lomachenko, moreover, began his career hitting the 126-pound limit. Skill-wise, however, Lomachenko figures to have the edge over Garcia, whose best punch is probably his hair-trigger left hook.

“It’s just gonna be a fun fight,” Garcia said. “He’s going to be very wary with my sh!t. He knows. And I have to watch out for his pressure and his technical abilities. I will be looking forward to that.”

Garcia also threw in a few other top-tier names in the interview, saying he would “knock out” former lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez and hard-hitting lightweight Gervonta Davis.

“I want to fight Teofimo at 140, knock him out, and hopefully get [Gervonta] ‘Tank’ Davis,” Garcia said. “When I say knockout, guys, you gotta remember. I will say I knockout every single person. Because I don’t see anyone surviving. And if they do, great. I will make it into a dog fight. Boxing’s fun to me. You’ll never have an easy fight with me.”