De La Hoya: Everyone at 135 Now on Notice, 2021 is Ryan Garcia's Year
Jan 2, 2021 • 9:31 PM ET
A few months ago, Golden Boy Promotions suffered a big blow when company superstar, Canelo Alvarez, broke away from their organization.
They now have a new superstar in the making.
On Saturday night at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas - lightweight contender Ryan Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) proved to the boxing world that he was the real deal.
Garcia knocked out Olympic gold medal winner Luke Campbell in the seventh round to capture the WBC's interim-lightweight title.
In order to get the win, Garcia had to fight through some adversity.
During the second round, Campbell dropped Garcia hard with a counter hook.
Garcia was able to recover, chipping away at Campbell until the seventh - when a perfectly placed shot the liver put Campbell down for he full count.
De La Hoya, a former six division world champion and himself an Olympic gold medal winner, was over the moon with the victory.
He believes the performance sent a strong message to the top names in the weight class, including unified champion Teofimo Lopez, WBA secondary champion Gervonta Davis and WBC champion Devin Haney.
“This is the kind of fight where superstars are made. Down on the mat early for the first time in his career, Ryan got up, rallied, broke down his man and got the knockout. Everyone in the lightweight division should consider themselves on notice. 2021 will be the year of Ryan Garcia,” De La Hoya said.
The victory made Garcia the mandatory challenger to Haney's title, but it remains to be seen if that contest will happen next. Haney also has a mandatory defense due to Javier Fortuna.
