Garcia leans on his left hook to knock out Fortuna in L.A.
Ryan Garcia stepped away from his fastrising career to focus on his mental health, leading to a 15-month hiatus that caused many to forget his place in boxing.
Garcia's left hooks proved Saturday night that he belonged among boxing's best, reminding critics of his skills. The Victorville native used a series of left hooks to drop Javier Fortuna three times in as many rounds before recording a sensational sixth-round stoppage at Crypto.com Arena.
“It felt like it was a statement to come back to the timeline I was at,” Garcia said in the ring. “(People said) I'm some guy who doesn't care about boxing, but I showed nothing but heart and skills.”
Garcia (22-0, 18 KOs) initially planned to fight Fortuna (37-3-1, 26 KOs) last July, but decided to withdraw from the bout to focus on his mental health. Garcia was coming off the best victory of his career, when he connected on a memorable left hook to the body to defeat Luke Campbell in January 2021.
Garcia was ascending and had an abundance of blockbuster bouts in front of him before he paused his career.
Garcia, 23, officially returned to his peak timeline when he dropped Fortuna for the first time in the fourth round, using a left hook that resembled the knockout punch he connected against Campbell. Garcia dropped Fortuna again in the fifth round before landing a devastating two-punch combination ending with a left hand to drop Fortuna for good. The official stopped the bout 27 seconds into the sixth round.
The circle is complete and now Garcia can prioritize his pursuit of a bout with Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
“I will fight Tank next,” Garcia said. “If he wants it, let's get it.”
In order to make the blockbuster bout, the two sides will need to overcome a handful of obstacles, including weight class, TV rights and financial split. Garcia is promoted by Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions with his fights streaming on DAZN.
Davis resides with Floyd Mayweather's Mayweather Promotions, which tends to do business with Showtime and FOX.
Garcia said he won't let ego get in the way of money matters and would consider a 60-40 split in favor of Davis to make the bout come to fruition. Garcia recently suggested a December fight with Davis at SoFi Stadium for the first boxing event at the 70,000-seat Inglewood venue.
“See y'all at the end of the year,” Davis tweeted after Garcia's victory.
“I want to do SoFi Stadium,” Garcia said earlier in the week about possibly fighting Davis. “If anything, in L.A. and just sell that out and go crazy. … I think that would be a sellout. I think that we'll have one of the biggest events in L.A. The biggest event in L.A. in 2022, for sure.”
Both fighters have experience competing at lightweight and junior welterweight, but Garcia might now push for the latter weight class after delivering a sensational performance against Fortuna, who made a last-minute request to change the bout from 135 pounds to 140. Garcia used his noticeable size advantage and fast hands to set the tone against Fortuna.
Garcia has spent most of his career at lightweight, which is arguably the deepest division in boxing, with undisputed champion Devin Haney, Vasiliy Lomachenko and Davis.