RYAN GARCIA CLIMBS UP THE RANKS, FACES OFF AGAINST FONSECA

Young boxing phenom Ryan “Kingry” Garcia will have an opportunity to position himself closer to a world title on Friday night, as he will fight Francisco Fonseca at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

While Garcia’s popularity is already soaring, he has yet to be seriously tested by an opponent, as he has been brought up very carefully by his handlers and promotional team. His most notable wins to date are victories over Jayson Velez and Romero Duno.

In his most recent bout against Duno in November of last year on the undercard of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s KO victory of Sergey Kovalev in Las Vegas, Garcia (19-0, 16 KO) quickly disposed of Duno inside two rounds.

Under the tutelage of Eddie Reynoso, who also trains Canelo, Garcia is 3-0 with three knockout victories.

If victorious against Fonseca, Garcia and his team will most likely look at fighting former world champion and boxing veteran Jorge Linares. The way Garcia deals with the speed and skill of Linares should give observers an indicator of just how good Garcia is. But he’ll have to get past Fonseca first.

Many hardcore fans may recognize Fonseca (25-2-2, 19 KO) from his ring appearances against Gervonta Davis and Tevin Farmer, both of which he lost. However, Fonseca has won his three out of his last four fights since losing to Farmer.

Fonseca’s most recent outing was a draw against Alex Dilmaghani in the UK in November of last year.

In the co-headliner, former three-division champion Jorge Linares will return to the ring against Carlos Morales in a lightweight bout.

The 34-year-old Linares (46-5, 28 KO) has been in a bit of a rough patch in recent years, going 2-2 in his last four fights, including an 11th round stoppage loss at the hands of Vasiliy Lomachenko in a title unification back in May of 2018. But a win on Friday could earn him a big fight with Ryan Garcia and an eventual title shot.

Morales (19-4-4, 8 KO) has won two of his last three fights since losing decisions to both Ryan Garcia and Rene Alvarado in 2018. His most recent showing was a draw against former title challenger Mercito Gesta last November.

Also on the card is Alexis Rocha fighting Brad Solomon in a battle of welterweight contenders.

The 22-year-old Rocha (15-0, 10 KO) has won his last two fights by stoppage, his most recent being a TKO over Roberto Valenzuela Jr. in December of 2019. With no real notable wins on his dossier, Solomon should be his biggest test yet.

Solomon (28-2, 9 KO) has twice the amount of fights and is without question the vastly more experienced fighter. However, he is coming off of a fifth-round knockout loss to welterweight prospect Vergil Ortiz Jr.

These fights and the rest of the preliminaries will be streamed live on DAZN.