Recent Golden Boy signee Arnold Barboza Jr confirmed today that, as first reported days ago by Dan Rafael, he’ll return to action on the April 20th Devin Haney vs Ryan Garcia pay-per-view.
Barboza (29-0, 11 KO), who made his promotional debut last month with an eight-round beatdown of Xolisani Ndongeni, also implied that he’d be ready to step in should the main event fall apart. Recent developments make that uncomfortably likely; the last two days have been a trainwreck for Garcia, who bragged about being “high as fuck” on Instagram and proudly admitted to drinking and smoking weed during training.
I’m not saying fighters have to be paragons of temperance in the lead-up to major fights, but if someone significantly more skilled than you is preparing to punch you very hard in the face, it’s wise to limit unforced errors.
For right now, though, TBA has the assignment. Golden Boy is short on super lightweights aside from Ohara Davies, who isn’t exactly a hot commodity after getting torched by Old Man Barroso, so they’ll probably have to dig into Matchroom’s lineup. Liam Paro could be fun; as far as I can tell, he’s available after turning down Subriel Matias.