Rolly Romero (17-2, 13 KOs) says Ryan Garcia (25-2, 20 KOs) walked away from a rematch that had already been agreed in principle, accusing the WBC welterweight champion of ducking him after both camps had already agreed to the terms
“They straight ducked me, bro. We had an immediate rematch, and then we tried to do it again, bro. They just kept ducking. We had a whole immediate rematch. We had a side bet, we had the venue, we had the purses, we had splits, everything. We had every little detail of the rematch set. And then he ran away and didn’t want to do it,” Romero
Romero, who defeated Garcia by unanimous decision in May 2025 for the vacant WBA (regular) welterweight title, says the collapse of those talks left him in limbo for the better part of half a year.
“Ryan wasted six months of my time. We had the whole deal done. We were going to fight May 30th in New York. We had the Barclays Center on that date,” RomeroÂ
With Garcia now targeting a September 12 mandatory WBC world welterweight title defense against Conor Benn, any immediate rematch with Romero is off the table so Romero has moved on and will defend his WBA 147-pound title against Teofimo Lopez on August 22.