Ryan Garcia is looking to jump start 2020 with a main event fight against a former world title challenger.
Golden Boy Promotions announced that Garcia will face Francisco Fonseca in the main event of a DAZN card from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California on February 14.
Garcia has emerged as one of the lightweight division's rising stars, needing two rounds or less to win both of his fights in 2019. Garcia last fought in the co-main event of the Canelo Alvarez vs. Sergey Kovalev card from November when he knocked out Romero Duno in the first round to improve his record to 19-0.
Fonseca has been working his way back to title contention ever since he unsuccessfully challenged for the IBF super featherweight title in August 2017. Fonseca would go on to win three straight fights after that 2017 loss to Gervonta Davis, but his win streak came to an end in his most recent fight back on November 16 when he fought Alex Dilmaghani to a draw with the IBO belt on the line.
The co-main event fight will see former lightweight world champion Jorge Linares in a lightweight bout. Linares' career in the past two years have had both highs and lows. Linares kicked off 2018 with a WBA lightweight title defense against Mercito Gesta but lost the title to Vasiliy Lomachenko months later. After a win over Abner Cotto in September 2018, Linares suffered a shocking first-round loss to Pablo Cesar Cano in January 2019. Linares returned to Japan this past September to pick up unanimous decision win against Al Toyogon.
A number of other fights were announced for the undercard, featuring the likes of Blair Cobbs and Alexis Rocha. Here are the undercard bouts that were announced:
- Alexis Rocha vs. TBA
- Blair Cobbs vs. TBA
- Oscar Negrete vs. Alberto Melian
- Alejandro Reyes vs. TBA
- Evan Sanchez vs. TBA
