Garcia vs Fortuna: Alexis Rocha vs Samuel Kotey, more set for July 16 undercard

Golden Boy have finally finalized and announced the undercard for Ryan Garcia’s return against Javier Fortuna on July 16 in Los Angeles, with the card also streaming live on DAZN.

On the main card:

• Alexis Rocha (19-1, 13 KO) vs Samuel Kotey (23-3, 16 KO) in a 10-round welterweight bout. Rocha, 24, is coming off of a stoppage win over Blair Cobbs in March, ending that sputtering hype train, and has won three straight since losing to Rashidi Ellis in 2020. He’s a good prospect. Kotey, 37, has lost three of his last five, and the wins in that time frame are against sub-.500 fighters. His last fight came in Feb. 2020, a decision loss to the aforementioned Cobbs.
• Lamont Roach Jr (22-1-1, 9 KO) vs Angel Rodriguez (20-1, 10 KO) in a 12-round WBA eliminator at 130 lbs. The 26-year-old Roach won an eliminator in 2019 in a questionable decision over Jonathan Oquendo, and then lost his title shot later that year to Jamel Herring. He’s won three straight. Rodriguez, 34, has spent his career fighting low-level bouts since turning pro in 2012. His record doesn’t give him any real business in a world title eliminator, but you never know. I mean, you can make a really good guess, but we’ll know in three weeks.
• Ricardo Sandoval (20-1, 15 KO) vs David Jimenez (11-0, 9 KO) in a 12-round WBA eliminator at flyweight. Sandoval, 23, is a legitimate contender, stepping up nicely with a win over Jay Harris about a year ago in England, and then following that by stopping veteran Carlos Buitrago last December. Jimenez, 30, is a Costa Rican southpaw, unbeaten but pretty untested. Like Rodriguez, on paper he has no real business in a world title eliminator, but it’s boxing, and sometimes these guys surprise, too. Just because you haven’t been tested doesn’t mean you can’t pass one.

There will also be prelims on DAZN and Golden Boy’s YouTube page:

• Diego De La Hoya (22-1, 10 KO) will return in a 10-round featherweight bout against Enrique Bernache (24-13, 12 KO), the sort of opponent De La Hoya should have been beyond years ago, and in fact it will be a rematch of a fight from 2019 where they got cut short in round two on a headbutt. De La Hoya followed that up by getting stopped against Ronny Rios, a fight where judge Alejandro Rochin hilariously had De La Hoya up 5-0 after five rounds because he was living on a different planet. Diego hasn’t fought since a 2019 bounce-back win over Renson Robles in Mexicali.
• Miguel Gaona (2-0, 1 KO), a Los Angeles lightweight, will face Jonathan Guzman (0-5) in a four-round bout.
• Lawrence King (11-0, 9 KO) will take on a TBA opponent in a six-round super middleweight bout. King is from San Bernadino.