Joseph Diaz Jr calls out Ryan Garcia for November fight

Ryan Garcia is publicly going all-in trying to get Gervonta Davis in the ring by the end of 2022, but there are still plenty of doubts that it actually will happen.

One person who clearly doesn’t believe Garcia vs Davis will get done is the guy most of us expected Garcia to fight next anyway, Joseph Diaz Jr.

“JoJo” says he wants Garcia in November:

Diaz (32-2-1, 15 KO) was supposed to fight Garcia (23-0, 19 KO) last November, but when Garcia pulled out for wrist surgery, Diaz instead got a shot at the WBC lightweight title, losing to Devin Haney on Dec. 4.

Prior to that, he’d stepped in for Garcia against Javier Fortuna in July 2021, winning a decision for the interim WBC lightweight belt.

Diaz, 29, started his career at 126 lbs, won the IBF title at 130, and moved up to 135 for the Fortuna fight after badly missing weight in a draw against Shavkat Rakhimov in early 2021.

He said earlier this year that he planned to move back down to 130 for a fight with Jono Carroll, but that didn’t come off. And Garcia says he’s not going to fight at 135 again, opting to stay at 140.

Diaz, in all candor, has no business at 140 in a high-level fight. He’s 5’6” with a 64” reach, a much shorter reach than Fortuna has at about the same height, and Garcia dwarfed Fortuna in the ring and made easy work of him in part because Fortuna just couldn’t physically do anything with Ryan, and didn’t belong at 140 lbs himself.

But this does seem to be as likely an option as is out there if Garcia vs Davis does not happen. Golden Boy don’t really have anyone else at 140, or really even to pull up from 135 other than maybe William Zepeda. Other options could include the likes of Yves Ulysse Jr. In short, unless they manage to get someone from Top Rank into the ring, the options are slim if the Davis fight doesn’t get done.