Ryan Garcia, Oscar Duarte Both At Career-Heaviest Weight For DAZN Main Event In Houston
BY JAKE DONOVAN
Published Fri Dec 01, 2023, 01:39 PM EST
Ryan Garcia is ready to fight in the ring.
The junior welterweight contender did his best to soak in the cheers and support as he stepped on the scale ahead of his DAZN-aired main event versus Mexico’s Oscar Duarte. Garcia registered at a career-heaviest but well-proportioned 143 pounds during Friday’s official weigh-in. Duarte was 142.8 pounds—also a career-heaviest—for their twelve-round junior welterweight contest this Saturday from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Garcia didn’t have the same intensity during the final staredown as was the case when they met face-to-face at the end of Thursday’s intense press conference.
The fight is the first for Garcia (23-1, 19KOs) since his seventh-round knockout defeat to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (29-0, 27KOs) in their superfight this past April 22 in Las Vegas. The sold-out event at T-Mobile Arena will go down as the highest grossing event of 2023, but resulted in Garcia’s first career loss.
It also marked the continuation of a year’s long tumultuous relationship with Golden Boy, which Garcia himself described as ‘toxic.’ The fallout included a two-way lawsuit filed, though all parties temporarily put aside their legal difference for the 25-year-old to move forward with his career. He expressed his gratitude after the weigh-in.
“Thank you, Houston,” Garcia told the supportive crowd at Friday’s weigh-in. “I’m gonna show you guys Saturday night all the work I put in.”
Duarte (26-1-1, 21KOs) has won eleven straight, all inside the distance. The 27-year-old from Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico fights for the third time in 2023, and is coming off a seventh-round knockout of D’Angelo Keyes in Indio, California.
DAZN undercard weights
Floyd Schofield Jr. (15-0, 11KOs), Austin, Texas, 135 pounds vs. Ricardo Lopez (17-7-3, 12KOs), Tijuana, Mexico, 134.2 pounds—10 rounds, lightweight
Shane Mosley Jr. (20-4, 11KOs), Pomona, California, 159.4 pounds vs. Joshua Conley (17-5-1, 11KOs), San Bernadino, California, 163.6 pounds—10 rounds, middleweight
* Conley 3.6 lb. over contracted limit
Darius Fulghum (8-0, 8KOs), Houston, 167.7 pounds vs. Pachino Hill (8-4-1, 6KOs), Davenport, Iown, 170* pounds—8 rounds, light heavyweight
* Hill 2 lb. over contracted limit
Non-televised undercard weights
Asa Stevens (5-0, 2KOs), Waianae, Hawaii, 122 pounds vs. Dominique Griffin (5-5-2, 2KOs), Irving. Texas, 121.6 pounds—6 rounds, junior featherweight
Gael Cabrera (2-0, 1KO), Sonora, Mexico, 118 pounds vs. Alejandro Dominguez (2-0, 1KO), Las Vegas, 117.4 pounds—4 rounds, bantamweight
Sean Garcia (6-0-1, 2KOs), Victorville, California 136.8 pounds vs. Joseph Johnson (3-1-1, 0KOs), San Antonio, 134.4 pounds—4 rounds, lightweight
Danilo Diez (pro debut), Cape Coral Gardens, Florida, 140.8 pounds vs. Jose Valenzuela (2-10, 1KO), Puebla, Mexico, 141 pounds—4 rounds, junior welterweight
