By: Hans Themistode
After hurling several verbal threats at one another for months, both Ryan Garcia and Joseph Diaz will now let their fist do the talking.
As first reported by Mike Coppinger of ESPN, the pair have verbally agreed to a November 27th, showdown in Los Angeles California.
For Garcia, everything appeared to be fine on the outside.
The lightweight contender had recently peeled himself up off the deck against Luke Campbell earlier this year, to score the seventh-round stoppage victory. With the biggest win of his career and millions of followers on his social media accounts, Garcia appeared to be on top of the world. That is, until he revealed he was dealing with severe mental health issues.
That in turn, led to Garcia withdrawing from his expected showdown against Javier Fortuna. Stepping in to replace Garcia on short notice, was Diaz. Despite moving up in weight, Diaz would go on to register a fairly one-sided unanimous decision victory.
Several in boxing circles began speculating whether or not Garcia was unnerved about the idea of facing Fortuna in the first place. However, with the 23-year-old now set to face the man who beat him, Garcia believes those rumors should be put to bed.
“Since he came out and beat Fortuna I took the opportunity to beat JoJo,” said Garcia to ESPN. “Now it ends questions if I was scared to fight Fortuna.”
While Garcia is thrilled with the opportunity to shut down his naysayers, more importantly, he simply can’t wait to step back inside the ring. Having spent the past several months away from the sport entirely, Garcia revealed that his absence has left a hole of sorts in his life. Not only does the lightweight contender yearn to return to the bright lights associated with the actual night of the fight but even the minutia of the sport is something he craves to get back to.
“I’m excited to be back; I’m ready to continue my momentum where I left off. I missed the sport of boxing. I missed the ring. I missed sparring.”