Ryan Garcia flew to Japan to watch Manny Pacquiao’s exhibition match with Rukiya Anpo at Super RIZIN 3, and he added the Japanese promotion to a list of potential future homes.
Garcia, a former WBC champion who’s currently serving a one-year doping suspension, said after Sunday’s event that he wants to fight “the best fighter in my weight class in Japan,” but mentioned UFC stars as specific targets for MMA or bare-knuckle bouts.
“I would fight — what’s his name? Sean O’Malley? ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley? [And] Conor McGregor in bare-knuckle,” Garcia said. “But yes, it’s a very big possibility. I know how to wrestle, I know how to do a lot of things that people don’t know. So yeah, I would do it.”
“I would knock out Suga Sean O’Malley’s rainbow hair off his head [in MMA],” he added.
Aside from his doping suspension, Garcia was also expelled from WBC for using racial slurs on social media and charged with misdemeanor vandalism following an arrest days later.
The controversial but talented boxer entered the RIZIN ring on Sunday and called out both Pacquiao and Anpo, who fought to a draw in their exhibition match. Anpo is a former K-1 champion who had a massive height advantage over the 45-year-old boxing legend.
Garcia explained his callouts after the event.
“I don’t even know who [Anpo] is, but I mention his name because he definitely was trying to knock out Manny Pacquiao and that kinda pissed me off, so now I want to knock him out,” Garcia said. “I would love to fight Manny Pacquiao — in a real fight, though, 12 rounds. I wouldn’t do an exhibition at all. I would want to do a real fight, old lion versus young lion.”
RIZIN has now featured two boxing legends in exhibitions, with Floyd Mayweather also previously knocking out Japanese superstars Tenshin Nasukawa and Mikuru Asakura.
“Seeing this event has really inspired me to want to come here and knock somebody out in front of the Japanese fans,” Garcia said. “Mayweather did it, but I’d do it way better. I’m a young lion. I’m a guy in his prime, and there’s a difference.”
