Garcia suffers hand injury and fight postponed

Light heavyweight star Ryan Garcia announced Friday that he will undergo surgery on his right wrist, forcing the postponement of his scheduled Nov. 27 fight with Joseph Diaz Jr.

In a statement, Garcia said he suffered a right hand injury during a training session. Surgery is scheduled for Monday.

Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes both boxers, is targeting February to reschedule the fight, sources said. The fight was not formally announced but both boxers said last week they reached an agreement.

The DAZN main event was to be Garcia’s first fight since he pulled out of a July 9 bout with Javier Fortuna to focus on his mental health.

Since he came out and beat Fortuna, I’ll take the opportunity to beat JoJo,” Garcia said last week. “Now the questions about whether he was afraid to fight Fortuna are over.”

“I’m excited to be back; I’m ready to continue my momentum where I left off. I missed the sport of boxing. I missed the ring. I missed sparring.”

Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) had the best performance of his career in January with a seventh-round technical knockout of Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell. The boxer, who is trained by Eddy Reynoso alongside Canelo Alvarez in San Diego, possesses perhaps the fastest hands in boxing.

The 23-year-old fighter was preparing to face his first former champion in what appears to be the toughest test of his career.

Diaz (32-1-1, 15 KOs) stepped in to fight Fortuna in July and scored the biggest win of his career in his lightweight debut.

The 2012 Olympian looked stronger and in better shape at 135 pounds after struggling to make the 130-pound limit. The 28-year-old fighter was stripped of a junior lightweight title before his February defense against Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov; Diaz weighed in at 133.5 pounds for that showdown.

Diaz won a 130-pound title in January 2020 with a decision win over Tevin Farmer. Diaz’s other title challenge came at 126 pounds against Gary Russell Jr. in 2018. Diaz entered the rankings at No. 7 with the win over Fortuna.

“I’m going to stop him and end his hype once and for all,” Diaz said last week. “I’m going to bring the action to him. Everything I’ve been through in and out of the ring will be on display that night.”

Garcia has nearly 9 million followers on Instagram and is a proven box office draw, having drawn sizable crowds in Southern California and Texas.