Ryan Garcia to Return on July 9th Against Javier Fortuna

After agreeing to fight each other last month, interim WBC lightweight champion Ryan Garcia will defend his title against the WBC’s mandatory lightweight challenger Javier Fortuna on July 9th in a DAZN televised event.

Lightweight star Ryan Garcia will defend his interim WBC lightweight belt against experienced southpaw Javier Fortuna on Friday, July 9. Venue TBC. pic.twitter.com/9Q95AuDQ33

— Boxing News (@BoxingNewsED) April 13, 2021

The bout was supposed to take place in early Spring but Garcia chose to hunt big money fights, including bouts against secondary champion Gervonta Davis and Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao. None of those materialized and perhaps Garcia’s team realized that getting the big bouts would be easier if King Ryan has a belt.

As interim champion, Garcia can stake a claim as Devin Haney’s next title challenger. But with Javier Fortuna also having a claim as mandatory challenger, the WBC ordered the two to settle the issue.

Determining the Next Title Challenger

Haney won the interim WBC title one month after Lomachenko defeated Campbell for the “full” WBC championship. The organization then promoted Loma to “franchise champion” status and Haney to full champion. When Haney suffered an injury, he was declared champion in recess. Mandatory challenger Fortuna and Campbell were supposed to fight to the interim title.

But the pandemic pushed that fight back. Fortuna decided to fight Linares but that did not materialize after the latter caught the virus. Campbell was booked to fight Garcia for the interim belt last January and Garcia was victorious. Haney was reinstalled as full champion after his recovery and is now set to face Jorge Linares in a voluntary title defense.

But what happens next after Haney vs Linares is a big question mark. The winner could fight mandatory challenger Fortuna or he could unify the belt against interim champion Ryan Garcia. Then there is also franchise champion Teofimo Lopez who defeated Lomachenko. And so to avoid further confusion, the WBC made it clear: the winner of the fight between Javier Fortuna and Ryan Garcia will fight for the world title next.

Ryan’s Back

Ryan Garcia is back and he is coming off the biggest win of his career. The 22-year old prospect of Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions recovered from an early knockdown to stop Campbell with a 7th round TKO last January. Garcia is undefeated in 21 bouts with 18 knockouts. He became the interim WBC lightweight champion after beating Campbell.

Meanwhile, Fortuna is a former junior lightweight champion and is the WBC’s no. 2 ranked fighter in the division. The 31-year old southpaw defeated Antonio Lazada Torres last November 2020. The fighter from the Dominican Republic has won three straight bouts since losing to Robert Easter in 2018. He has a record of 36-2-1 with 25 knockouts and two no-contests.

There is no question that Garcia has what it takes to be one of boxing’s next big stars. But to get to that point, he must prove himself. He passed his toughest test to date in Campbell but there’s no doubt that Fortuna is way too better than the British fighter. Garcia has been talking about fighting Devin Haney or even Manny Pacquiao but he has to earn his stripes first. Fortuna should be the test that determines Garcia’s true value.