Ryan Garcia is ready to trade in his eight-ounce gloves for a pair of four-ouncers.
The former interim WBC lightweight titleholder has struck up a rivalry with one of the UFC’s top stars and current bantamweight world champion, Sean O’Malley. Garcia recently declared that he would be more than willing to fight ‘Sugar’ inside the Octagon, so long as Dana White writes him a big fat check for doing so.
‘The Flash’ doubled down on his post during an appearance on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.
“I’ll beat his ass in MMA, guaranteed,” Garcia said. “You don’t understand, I’m a natural wrestler. I just beat my security who’s a wrestler. I beat him. I’m strong and I got crazy conditioning. I know I’m gonna knock him out in boxing. That’s not even fair. What’s fair is to test myself in MMA because I know if I put my mind to it and train every day and I had Nate [Diaz] helping me, even Alex Pereira… All of them and I really locked in, he will not beat me.
“I will come with everything I have and I will destroy Sean O’Malley in the UFC. I’ve already sent text messages to Dana [White]. I’ve already got people connected to Dana to ask him. Let’s do this. I’ll come to the UFC. Pay me a bag and I’m there. I’m down to do it.”
Ryan Garcia: "I will destroy Sean O’Malley. In the UFC. I’ve already sent text messages to Dana [White]"
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Historically, mixed martial artists have done pretty well moving from MMA to boxing, but the other way around has often produced disastrous results. The most notorious example was at UFC 118 in August 2010 when multi-time boxing world champion James Toney stepped inside the Octagon for a crossover clash with Randy Couture. As expected, Couture quickly took down Toney and submitted him in the opening round.
Not to suggest that Ryan Garcia would suffer the same fate. In all likelihood, Sean O’Malley would opt to stand and trade in an attempt to beat the boxing star at his own game. That would give Garcia a fair chance to score what would undoubtedly be a massive upset — not just for O’Malley, but for the sport of MMA.
On Saturday, April 20, ‘King Ryan’ will challenge reigning and defending WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney. The bout is expected to emanate from the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, NY.