4 Best Opponents for Ryan Garcia After Win vs. Mario Barrios

Buckle up, boxing fans.

We now live in a world where Ryan Garcia is a champion.

"KingRy" ascended to his first full-fledged professional crown on Saturday night in Las Vegas, where he thumped Mario Barrios and took the Texan's WBC welterweight title in the main event of a Ring Magazine-produced show at T-Mobile Arena.

Garcia held regional and second-tier titles earlier in his career but hadn't actually "won" a bout since KO'ing Oscar Duarte in December 2023. A majority decision defeat of Devin Haney four months later was overturned by a failed drug test and he dropped a unanimous verdict to Rolando Romero in his most recent fight last May.

The crowning of the mercurial Californian creates a number of possibilities for compelling fights at or near 147 pounds and the B/R combat staff waded into the discussion by labeling foes who could and probably will share Garcia's next marquee, along with the one we'd like to see and a final choice who could break the internet.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought in the app comments.

Who It Could Be: Rolando Romero

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Rolly Romero lands a punch on Ryan Garcia

Let's be clear. If we're pulling the promotional strings, this one doesn't happen.

Rolando Romero is precisely no one's idea of a Hall of Famer even in the middle of a career in which he's held a second-tier title at 135 pounds and full-fledged claims to championship status at both at 140 and 147.

He's been knocked out by both Gervonta Davis and Isaac Cruz and was behind on all three cards against Ismael Barroso when the unheralded Venezuelan was on the wrong end of a dubious stoppage in their matchup in Las Vegas.

But "Rolly" is kryptonite to Ryan Garcia.

He floored Garcia with a left hook nine months ago in Times Square and flummoxed him the rest of the way while earning seven of 12 rounds on two scorecards and a 10-2 mandate on a third while retaining the WBA welterweight belt Garcia wanted.

Of course, now that they're both champs, it's no surprise "KingRy" would speak his name. but we'd still advise against it.

"If I get my rematch, I'm gonna do the job how I was supposed to do the first time around," Garcia told the Inside the Ring podcast. "I might train a little. There was just little other things that were happening. I was a little unhealthy. But guess what? If I come back, I know I'm gonna do a job."

Careful what you wish for.

Who It Probably Will Be: Conor Benn

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Conor Benn punches Chris Eubank Jr.

Opposites may indeed attract. But in this case, so do similarities.

Both Garcia and English lightning rod Conor Benn have come up short on drug tests, spared no verbal expense in proclaiming their respective innocence, and frequently operated on the margins of gentlemanly behavior.

And whaddya know?

They both happen to be welterweights looking for fights and they've each managed to work the other into would-be opponent conversation.

Benn is the mandatory challenger to Garcia's newly-earned championship status and told Ring Magazine there are "concrete plans" for the two to get together in May.

Garcia, not surprisingly, has not ceded microphone ground when the idea comes up.

"I would definitely be willing to go to the UK to fight him," Garcia told Covers.com. "He seems like a fun match-up. He's gonna come crazy and throw bombs all night and thinks he's gonna overwhelm me, but he won't. But I would love to fight him. I love fighting Eddie Hearn fighters, I don't know why, I just love to beat them up."

Your move, Eddie.

Who We Wish It Would Be: Devin Haney

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Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia

It could and probably will end up being someone else.

Sure, there's another choice who'd threaten cyberspace as we know it, too.

But come on, there's no option that makes more sense than Devin Haney.

Garcia bounced "The Dream" off the canvas when they met at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and got the nod on two of three scorecards, but he'd already been ineligible to win Haney's 140-pound title for missing weight and compounded the hurt by testing positive for Ostarine—necessitating his Saturday reinvention.

And lucky for him, Haney's has done some reinventing, too.

He climbed to welterweight to defeat Jose Ramirez on the Garcia-Romero undercard a year last May, then snatched his own championship strap with a comprehensive beating of then-WBO claimant Brian Norman Jr. in November.

The latter moved him to fifth in B/R's year-end rankings and makes a Garcia rematch not only a compelling revenge angle, but also a pretty darned good fight.

If Haney wants it, that is. Garcia suggests he doesn't.

"I know he's scared," Garcia told FightHype. "He's got that fear in him. I gave him that fear, and that sh*t is still hitting his heart. When he sees me, I know he's like, 'F*ck. There's something else in him. I don't want that.'"

Maybe not. But we do.

What Would Break the Internet: Floyd Mayweather Jr.

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Sorry, Jake Paul. You've been overruled on this one.

Though the "Problem Child" provides a bandwidth-busting option for fighters across multiple weight classes and at least two combat sports, he takes a back seat to the prospect of Garcia standing across a ring from the man called "Money."

Floyd Mayweather Jr. went public on Friday with an intention to return to the pro ring after a springtime exhibition with Mike Tyson. And given his long-time preeminence among the welterweights before ceding the full-time stage in 2015, who better to provide a get-over opportunity to the new champ than the old one?

Garcia, who was not quite two months old when Mayweather won his first title in 1998, reacted on social media when the Tyson event was announced.

And gave us all the ammunition we needed to suggest they get together, too.

Better late than never.