Turki Alalshikh announced today that Ring Magazine’s first USA show will see Ryan Garcia battle Rolando Romero atop a tripleheader this coming May.
Other details, such as the date, location, and presumably the broadcast partner, “will be announced later.”
Garcia (24-1, 20 KO), out of action since his overturned decision over Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KO) this past April, was expected to meet former super lightweight champion Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz before running things back with Haney in September. He instead fights Cruz’s last victim in Romero (16-2, 13 KO), who bounced back from March’s stoppage loss to Cruz by cruising past future Abdullah Mason victim Manuel Jaimes in September.
Though there were rumblings that the Cruz fight would take place at 144 instead of the full welterweight limit, Alalshikh doesn’t mention if that’s the case here.
Haney, for his part, will follow the original plan and take on Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KO). Ramirez looked very limited in last November’s loss to Arnold Barboza Jr, showing severe vulnerabilities to some of Haney’s best weapons, but it’s not like “The Dream” was in peak form against Garcia.
Rounding out the card is an IBF heavyweight eliminator pitting Martin Bakole (21-1, 16 KO) against Efe Ajagba (20-1, 14 KO). This should be fun while it lasts; Ajagba isn’t the world-beater Top Rank hoped for, but he’s a big boy with a real punch and Bakole could charitably be described as defense-agnostic.