By: Sean Crose

“Forget the catchweight shit,” Ryan Garcia told Shakur Stevenson via social media on Wednesday. “Let’s do it for real I want to take your belt and snatch it right off you.” Last weekend Garcia showed just how good and menacing he could be by soundly defeating WBC welterweight titlist Mario Barrios. Now the California native is looking for bigger names, in particular that of the undefeated Stevenson who himself recently made easy work of the excellent Teofimo Lopez. It’s a fight both fighters and fans would love to see.

Although the odds would favor the extraordinarily skilled Stevenson in a fight between the two men, it’s foolish at this point to write Garcia off in any way, shape or form. ” When I’m focused,” he added, “I can do anything.” Those words have yet to be proven untrue. With all that being said, Stevenson has declared that he wants to fight or would at least be willing to fight Garcia so long as it’s at a catch weight of 144 pounds. He also made it clear he would require VADA testing.

“I think it’s a great fight to make,”Stevenson told DAZN last weekend. “I’m in this for big fights. Me and Ryan would be an even bigger fight and would be a tremendous fight. I want to fight him and he wants to fight me so it should be easy to get done. We’ve just got to make sure he’s on VADA and there’s no cheating involved.”

Garcia, of course got popped for having a banned substance in his system. After being judged the winner of a fight with Devin Haney, the victory was taken away as was a good chunk of Garcia’s reputation. Things have changed now of course after last Saturday, but it’s understandable that Stevenson would want VADA involved. It’s also not at all uncommon in this day and age to fight it a catch weight. Garcia is a full welterweight after all while Stevenson’s is a junior welterweight.

Garcia, however, doesn’t seem keen on the idea.