Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez has revealed that Adrien Broner was considered as a possible opponent for Ryan Garcia as he is set to return from his seventh-round stoppage defeat to Gervonta Davis in April.
Garcia (23-1, 19KOs) will make his return on the second of December at the Toyota Center, Houston, against Oscar Duarte Jurado (26-1-1, 21 KOs), which will mark Garcia’s maiden fight competing at the 140lbs super-welterweight limit.
Speaking to the 3 Knockdown Rule podcast, Gomez confirmed that Broner (35-4-1, 24 KOs) was under serious consideration as a possible opponent for Garcia and that GPB founder Oscar De La Hoya and Broner’s promoter, Don King, had held tentative discussions regarding a prospective match-up between the pairing. However, a deal could not be agreed upon because Broner wanted to take a “warm-up” bout first.
“I give Ryan a lot of credit,” Gomez said on The 3 Knockdown Rule. “We were going through names, and there was a possibility at one point that we were going to go after Adrien Broner, which is a great name for him. It’s a great name, and we had some conversations with [Broner’s promoter] Don King. Don King spoke to [Golden Boy founder] Oscar [De La Hoya] directly, ‘c’mon, let’s get it on.’
“But for whatever reason, Broner didn’t want it at this time. Broner said he was going to do a tune-up fight first, happy to explore it early next year.”
Broner is a recent acquisition for Don King following the former’s parting from Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions promotional outfit. Broner’s last appearance and debut under the Don King banner came in June against Bill Hutchinson at the Casino Miami Jai Alai, Florida. Broner would defeat Hutchinson comfortably by a unanimous points win.
Gomez continues to add that he was surprised that Garcia selected Jurado as a comeback opponent, considering that Juardo is currently on an 11-fight knockout streak following his 2019 defeat to Adrian Estrella.
"So, as we were going through names, Duarte’s name came up, and I was very, very surprised that they brought it up and it came from Ryan,” Gomez said. “So, there’s something that Ryan sees. Again, these fighters have their own vision, and they see things that we don’t see. He wanted Duarte, and he feels like he can exploit that. I can see Ryan’s got fast hands and Duarte can be hit, but he’s also got heavy hands, and he’s very, very dangerous.”
