De La Hoya Meets Ryan Garcia to Discuss Isaac Cruz’s Battle. Oscar De La Hoya said he would meet with Ryan Garcia this Tuesday to discuss his future and a possible fight against Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz. De La Hoya says the high-ranking 23-year-old Pitbull Cruz (23-2-1, 16 KOs) is the fight Ryan wants. And the boxing public is interested to see it. Cruz came from a fifth-round knockout win over Yuriorkis Gamboa on April 16. And he had already expressed interest in fighting Ryan next. So, unless De La Hoya doesn’t seriously want to fight Pitbull Cruz for Ryan’s sake, it’ll be easy for him to put them together.

De La Hoya said there were “many options” available for Ryan to fight next. But he didn’t say who the fighter was. It is believed that De La Hoya is desperate to match Ryan against former IBF super featherweight champion Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz Jr. He came from a 12-round one-sided unanimous decision loss to WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney last December.

And he didn’t have the punching power to worry about Ryan. Jojo, 29, is arguably a safer fight for Ryan than putting him in the Pitbull Cruz. Which would put King Ry in a position where he would have to deal with his strong inner game. It would be an unfortunate situation for Ryan Garcia if he fought Jojo Diaz. Because even if he beats him, fans will point out that he was just beaten by Devin Haney last December. Diaz has only won one of his previous three fights.

Ryan vs Isaac Cruz

We’ve been down this path before, with De La Hoya saying he was interested in matching Ryan against Isaac Cruz in January, but negotiations never started. Instead, Ryan faced 33-year-old fringe competitor Emmanuel Tagoe on April 9, and fans weren’t impressed with King Ry’s opponents or performances. Ryan won the fight by unanimous decision in 12 rounds with a score of 119-108, 118-109, and 119-108.

“I will have a meeting with Ryan Garcia tomorrow to discuss his future,” Oscar De La Hoya told the media Monday in Los Angeles.

“We’ve been very vocal about Isaac Cruz, and that’s the fight he wants,” continued De La Hoya of 23-year-old Ryan Garcia’s next contest.

“But there are a lot of options out there, but that’s the only fight people want to see. Why not make it happen? We’re all for it. Ryan Garcia needed this fight here [against Emmanuel Tagoe] after a 15 month gap to get rid of the cobwebs. Now, we move on to bigger & better things,’ says De La Hoya.” Now that Ryan’s tune-up bout is over, he must be ready to take on the next Pitbull Cruz.

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