Joseph Diaz Jr. clearly is skeptical of Ryan Garcia’s excuse for pulling out of their fight.
Garcia announced Friday that he suffered a significant injury to his right hand while training, which will require surgery Monday in Los Angeles. That injury forced the undefeated Garcia to withdraw from a 12-round lightweight title fight against Diaz that was tentatively scheduled for November 27 in Los Angeles.
The Diaz-Garcia bout hadn’t been officially announced, but both boxers had agreed to partake in a DAZN main event the Saturday night after Thanksgiving at a venue that hadn’t been determined. Instead, Diaz (32-1-1, 15 KOs) has turned his attention to challenging Devin Haney (26-0, 15 KOs) for the legitimate WBC lightweight title December 3, the date Haney has indicated is reserved for his next fight.
Upon learning of Garcia’s withdrawal Friday, an agitated Diaz took to social media.
“Ryan Garcia is a bitch,” Diaz stated in one Tweet. “Ryan got a hand injury shadow boxing … p-ssy.”
Diaz mocked Garcia’s habit of posting videos to social media in which he shows off his hand speed by shadowboxing. An annoyed Diaz later trolled Garcia by questioning his manhood in a Tweet that read, “Yo @RyanGarcia what kind of heels you want for Christmas? P-ssy.”
The 23-year-old Garcia pulled out of a WBC interim lightweight title fight against a proven southpaw for the second time in just about six months. The polarizing Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) was supposed to face Dominican veteran Javier Fortuna on July 9 in Los Angeles, but he withdrew from that bout the week after it was announced to address his mental health.
The 28-year-old Diaz, a 2012 U.S. Olympian from Downey, California, replaced Garcia and defeated Fortuna (36-3-1, 25 KOs, 2 NC) by unanimous decision in a 12-round main event DAZN streamed from Banc of California Stadium.
Garcia and Diaz were supposed to fight for the WBC interim lightweight title Garcia relinquished when he withdrew from the Fortuna fight. Garcia, of Victorville, California, won that then-unclaimed championship when he knocked out England’s Luke Campbell (20-4, 16 KOs) with a body shot in the seventh round January 2 at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
“I want to thank my fans for all the continued support,” Garcia said Friday in a statement released by Golden Boy Promotions. “We are postponing my next fight for a couple months as a result of a significant hand injury that requires immediate surgery. I will undergo surgery at Cedars-Sinai on Monday. I promise early [in 2022] I will return better, faster and stronger than ever. I love you guys!”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.