Undefeated lightweight rising star Ryan “KingRy” Garcia announced on his social media that he would be fighting 42-year-old Filipino ring legend Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao next, the boxing world was shocked and many wonder if it is just a ploy for Garcia to gain attention in the media.
Garcia, 22, who fights at 135-pounds recently beat British Olympic Gold Medalist Luke Campbell. Garcia suffered a vicious knockdown in round 2 of the fight but got up and went on to stop the 33-year-old Brit by body shot in round 7.
The lightweight division is stacked with talent and fans were calling for Garcia to fight Gervonta “Tank” Davis next.
Garcia is 20 years younger than Manny Pacquiao and will try to make the fight at a catch-weight of around 143-pounds. There has been no official announcement from Oscar De La Hoya who promotes Garcia or Manny Pacquiao himself.
Most fighters favor Pacquiao to win against the inexperienced young Garcia, but undefeated American Junior Welterweight prospect Brandun Lee who fought Garcia in the amateurs believes Garcia has a shot to KO Pacquiao.
“Ryan [Garcia] versus Manny [Pacquiao] how does it go down? Man that’s a crazy fight, but anything can happen this is boxing,” said Lee on his Instagram Live.
Lee who is half Korean and half Mexican feels the left hook of Garcia is the key to KO a southpaw like Pacquiao.
“Ryan got that nice left hook as we all know. We all know the left hook works better for southpaws so he might land that punch. He’s fast, good timing, so he might land that lucky left hook and put Manny to sleep. Again you got Manny who is older like Forty plus, but Manny can knock people out. I don’t know if Ryan can take a hit or not because Luke Campbell is not a big puncher or anything and Luke dropped him, so I don’t know.”
Pacquiao was chasing a mega-fight with Conor McGregor but the UFC superstar was knocked out by Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 and that hurt the possibility of the fight coming to fruition.
If Pacquiao doesn’t defend his WBA welterweight belt the sanctioning body could strip him of his title. The Pac-Man is currently working as a Senator in the Philippines and hasn’t fought in over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this will be his longest lay off and as he gets older the inactivity could hurt him when he finally returns to the ring.
