A couple of days ago, Ryan García revealed his ‘dream‘ boxing match- to step inside the ring with WBA (Super) welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. Now, the WBC interim lightweight champion’s wish is seemingly coming true as talks are reportedly ongoing to pit the fighters together this year.
Talks reportedly ongoing to pit Manny Pacquiao against Ryan García this year
The claim was first made by Mike Coppinger of The Athletic, who tweeted that discussions are underway to make the bout into reality, which will see the eight-division champion Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao (62–7–2, 39 KOs) taking on Ryan García (21-0, 18 KO), who is fresh off from a 7th round TKO victory over Luke Campbell.
To face an established boxer like Pacquiao has been an aspiration for García, who in recent times has been vocally held the Filipino legend in high regard.
“Manny’s a legend, though. Manny’s a person I’ve always looked up to,” García said on ‘Jalen & Jacoby’ last Tuesday, “you can’t say anything bad about Manny. I wouldn’t even be mad in the ring with him.”
“Even if he hit me, I don’t know how I would react. I would be just, like, ‘Yo, man, you hit me! I can’t believe this, yes! Hit me more!’ He’s been an inspiration to me and I’m just happy that, uh, yeah.”
While García is likely to have his dream come true this year, the thing to be considered is that there’s an age difference of 20 years between Pacquiao, 42, and the 22-year-old García.
Moreover, García fights at 135 pounds while Pacquiao, despite being 4 inches shorter in height and 3 inches shorter in reach, competes at 147 for the last 11 years and has won titles across eight weight classes.
Pacquiao was last seen in action against Keith Thurman on 20th July 2019 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada where he clinched the WBA welterweight belt via split decision.
There were speculations going on about a potential bout between Pacquiao and UFC star Conor Mcgregor this yeas as well, with both fighters having nodded to face each other.
However, with the García fight reaching legitimate talks, its very likely that Pacquiao may face Conor, who was knocked out by Dustin Poirier at UFC 257, at a later stage.
