Despite Ryan Garcia’s initial verbal agreement to a 144-pound catchweight to face Shakur Stevenson, his father and trainer, Henry Garcia, has since outlined a different set of demands.
Garcia set those demands before his unanimous decision win over Mario Barrios last week, which secured him the WBC Welterweight Title, which Shakur verbally agreed to. This was done as a compromise after Shakur previously stated he would only go up to 147 from 140 if his opponents had a ten-pound rehydration clause. The 144-catchweight was agreed without a rehydration clause.
Henry argues that the Stevenson fight doesn’t compare to the magnitude of a Devin Haney rematch and insists that Shakur must move up to the full 147-pound limit. Henry referenced how Terence Crawford moved up from 154 to beat Canelo Alvarez at 168 to become undisputed as a reference point. Although he left the door open for the 144-pound catchweight, he had doubts the fight would take place there.
“Absolutely [the Haney rematch is bigger than a Shakur Stevenson fight], by far, there is no comparison. In order for [Stevenson] to fight us, he’s going to have to come up to [147lbs]. Didn’t [Crawford] go up [to fight] Canelo [at 168lbs]? And he got respect, right? Why doesn’t Shakur go up to [fight] Ryan? He wants Ryan to [agree to] a catchweight. We don’t want to start going down – unless it makes sense, but I doubt it,” Henry said
Although that may be the case, Garcia has come out to say he is willing to face Shakur at 140 for the latter’s WBC Junior Welterweight Title. That is provided there is no rehydration clause, with Shakur being keen on that.
“Forget the catchweight… Let’s do it forreal I want to take your belt and snatch it right off you. To those that are worried about the 140 pound weight… it was my plan to be able to also win at 140. As long as there’s no rehydration clause things will be going forward… I’m coming for you,” Garcia stated
“U speaking my language,” Shakur replied