2024 Upset Of The Year: Rolly Romero-Ryan Garcia

By; Sean Crose

As far as odds making goes, there were undoubtedly bigger upsets than Rolly Romero’s surprise win over Ryan Garcia this past spring in, of all places, Times, Square. Yeah, it’s easy to think of a more significant upset than Ramero’s big win in the Big Apple. Despite his controversial nature and a loss to Gervonta “Tank” Davis, Garcia was a star in the fight world. He brought in numbers and he generally looked good. Ramiro was also seen as a good fighter but he certainly wasn’t a star. He was more… a B-level fighter than an A-level fighter. At least that’s what people thought. And, as it’s often the case, people were wrong.

Although Romero certainly didn’t blow Garcia out of the figurative water, he outworked the man throughout the fight smartly, employing a job and not letting Garcia control the tempo. The more the fight went on, the more certain things became clear. “By the tenth,” Boxing Insider wrote at the time, “it was long past obvious that the fight was being fought at Romero’s pace. Even Garcia’s face betrayed some frustration.” When the bell rang at the end of the 12th and final round the only real concern was that the judges might rob Romero of a great victory. They didn’t. Instead, Romero was awarded the unanimous decision win in the biggest moment of his professional career.

The truth is that Ryan Garcia will likely always be more well-known than Romero. That’s just the way things go. The biggest upset in boxing history didn’t turn Buster Douglas into Mike Tyson; it simply turned Buster Douglas into the man who beat Mike Tyson. Still such things make for crowning achievements, and Romero certainly had a crowning achievement -or rather made a crowning achievement for himself- by besting Garcia last spring in Manhattan

Neither Romero nor Garcia have fought since last May. Injuries and the politics of boxing have seen to that. Perhaps there will be a rematch, but that’s likely not the case. No matter what, however, Romero has certainly had a giant win for himself, proving to the world just how good he is. Yet for Garcia it’s hard to tell what’s going to become of the wily Californian. He’s said to be fighting Mario Barrios in February. It will be interesting if the fight goes down to see how Garcia looks. He hasn’t had a solid win in over 2 years.