Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney have now lined up opponents for a provisional bout, with their rematch expected to take place in May 2025, with the bout between the two heavyweight contenders set to be Support for the May 2025 competition.
The show will be promoted under the “Ring Magazine” banner, separate from Alasheh’s fight productions as part of the Riyadh season. Arasheh recently purchased the legendary publication.
Plus, there’s a heavyweight eliminator bout between Martin Bakole and Efe Ajagba.
“More details on the location and exact date will be announced later,” Arashih posted on social media.
Garcia, who has a record of 24-1 (20 KOs), has not fought since an April 2024 matchup with Haney, who won by majority decision, but was defeated by a drug called Ostarin. After testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug ostarine, Garcia changed his case to no ruling. Garcia’s one-year suspension from the New York State Athletic Commission will end on April 20, 2025. He was scheduled to compete in an exhibition match in Japan in late December, but withdrew due to a wrist injury.
Garcia has Initially hinted he might face Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz During his comeback campaign, Cruz’s team confirmed they were in talks. Garcia will replace Cruz against Romero, who won the WBA junior welterweight title last year. (Cruz later handed the belt to Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela.)
Romero returned to the ring in September with a record of 16-2 (13 KOs), defeating Manuel Jaimes via unanimous decision. His other loss was to Gervonta Davis via sixth-round technical knockout in 2022.
Haney, 31-0 (15 KOs), hasn’t taken a step back since the Garcia fight. Haney initially remained the WBC welterweight champion due to Garcia being overweight, but he subsequently vacated the belt and was named the “offseason champion” by the sanctioning body.
Ramirez, 29-2 (18 KOs), holds two world titles of his own before losing to Josh for the undisputed junior welterweight title in May 2021 Taylor. Ramirez won three straight before losing to Arnold Barboza via unanimous decision this year. November has passed.
Bakole-Ajagba is the knockout for the IBF heavyweight title currently held by Daniel Dubois, who will face Joseph Parker on February 22.
Bakole has a record of 21 wins and 1 loss (16 KOs) and has won 10 consecutive games since being stopped by Michael Hunter in the 10th and final round of the 2018 contest. Along the way, Bakole handed Olympic gold medalist Tony Yoka his first career defeat and most recently gave Jared Anderson his first blemish in the fifth round in August. The game crushed Team USA’s prospects.
Ajagba went 20-1 (14 KOs) in 2021, losing a unanimous decision to Frank Sanchez but has since racked up five wins. He defeated two unbeaten opponents, Stephan Shaw (via decision) and Zhan Kossobutskiy (via disqualification), 10-1-1 in four rounds. Joseph Goodall then defeated Guido Vianello via split decision last April.
