Boxing
Ryan Garcia to Golden Boy: Make the money work and I'll fight Duno
The fallout from Avery Sparrow being arrested and scratched Friday from his upcoming fight against Ryan Garcia is that Garcia has been left without an opponent Saturday night.
DAZN's Chris Mannix originally reported that Golden Boy president Eric Gomez told him that he informed Garcia's camp about Sparrow's potential troubles and that fellow lightweight Romero Duno was available to fight Garcia instead. But Garcia's camp said it wouldn't fight Duno because, according to Gomez, "Duno is too tough."
Gomez later attempted to clarify his comments.
Garcia spoke with Mannix on Friday night, trying to make things crystal clear from his point of view — the bottom line being if Golden Boy makes the money right, he will indeed fight Duno on Saturday night.
"I spoke to Garcia about an hour ago," Mannix said during the Devin Haney-Zaur Abdullaev card on DAZN on Friday night. "He says he's absolutely willing to fight Romero Duno. He says, 'I was totally in the dark about the situation with Avery Sparrow. I came to the weigh-in today expecting Avery Sparrow to be there. I was shocked when he wasn't.'
"He said, 'I was never offered Duno. Nobody said they had a replacement. No one on my team was offered Duno. That was a total lie. They've offered me peanuts over and over to fight Duno. They found a way to try to make me fight Duno. (Golden Boy) wanted this from the start. This is their bleep up, not mine. Make the money work and I'm ready to fight Duno (Saturday night).'"
Garcia was originally scheduled to fight Sparrow as the co-main event of the Jaime Munguia-Patrick Allotey card, which Duno is also a part of, set to face Ivan Delgado.
