Joseph Diaz Jr has thrown his hat into the ring to face Ryan Garcia ( after witnessing the back-and-forth between Garcia and Golden Boy supremo Oscar De La Hoya.
Garcia and De La Hoya had a very public social media spat on Twitter with each other with claims from Garcia that following his fight with Gervonta Davis in April that the team of “Tank” showed more care towards him postfight than De La Hoya, who has handled Garcia through out of his professional career to date.
Ultimately, De La Hoya urged Garcia to take responsibility for accepting the deal to fight Davis in the first place. The deal involved a 136lb catchweight limit and a rehydration clause imposed on Garcia, something which Oscar disagreed with Garcia accepting from the start of protracted talks between Garcia and Davis.
Diaz Jr weighed in on the situation and urged De La Hoya to put him in with Garcia.
“All of this back and for with Oscar and Ryan Garcia – Oscar line me up with him. I’ll fight him at whatever weight he wants. It’s been a long time coming.”
Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) and Diaz Jr (32-4-1, 15 KOs) had been slated as opponents previously and were heavily linked to face each other in November of 2021. Ultimately the fight would collapse due to Garcia sustaining a hand injury and hand to undertake surgery to repair the issue.
Diaz Jr would move on from that disappointment and face Devin Haney, ultimately succumbing to defeat to the now undisputed world lightweight champion.
Diaz Jr is enduring a three-fight losing streak with defeats against Haney, William Zepeda & Mercito Gesta stretching from December 2021 to March of this year. Diaz’s last win came against Javier Fortuna in July of 2021.
Any fight between Garcia and Diaz will need to see Garcia and De La Hoya make amends and begin moving in the same direction once again. The pair famously fell out back in 2019, and their relationship did not thaw out till late 2020 and began working more harmoniously since. However, the fallout of Garcia’s fight with Davis, of which De La Hoya skipped the traditional post-fight press conference, rubbed salt in the wounds in the opinion of Garcia.
