Golden Boy President Reveals Adrien Broner Was A Potential Opponent For Ryan Garcia

Golden Boy President Eric Gomez says Adrien Broner was almost the opponent for Ryan Garcia.

Garcia is coming off his first career loss in a TKO loss to Gervonta Davis earlier this year. He will now return against Oscar Duarte on Dec. 2 at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. However, according to Gomez, that was not the original plan as Broner was linked as the opponent but Broner wanted a tune-up fight first.

“I give Ryan a lot of credit,” Gomez said on The 3 Knockdown Rule (h/t BoxingScene). “We were going through names and there was a possibility at one point that we were going to go after Adrien Broner, which is a great name for him. It’s a great name and we had some conversations with [Broner’s promoter] Don King. Don King spoke to [Golden Boy founder] Oscar [De La Hoya] directly, ‘c’mon let’s get it on.’

“But for whatever reason Broner didn’t want it at this time. Broner said he was going to do a tune-up fight first, happy to explore it early next year.”

A fight between Ryan Garcia and Adrien Broner would have been massive. But, after Broner wanted a tune-up fight, Garcia was open to fighting anyone and Duarte ended up agreeing.

“So, as we were going through names, Duarte’s name came up and I was very, very surprised that they brought it up and it came from Ryan,” Gomez said. “So, there’s something that Ryan sees. Again, these fighters have their own vision and they see things that we don’t see. He wanted Duarte and he feels like he can exploit that. I can see, Ryan’s got fast hands and Duarte can be hit but he’s also got heavy hands and he’s very, very dangerous.”

Oscar Duarte is 26-1-1 as a pro and coming off a win over D’Angelo Keyes back in May. Ryan Garcia, meanwhile, is 23-1 and is the former interim WBC lightweight champion.

Who do you thnk would have won, Ryan Garcia or Adrien Broner?