By Jake Donovan

Ryan Garcia has managed to land in several verbal battles in the past few days, but lost in the shuffle is the one fight that is actually booked.

The rising unbeaten lightweight will appear on the undercard of a March 30 DAZN livestream event at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California. Garcia will face Puerto Rico’s Jose “Wonder Boy” Lopez in a scheduled 10-round bout, BoxingScene.com was informed by the Golden Boy Promotions team over the weekend.

Headlining the show, Angel Acosta will defend his 108-pound belt versus former titlist Ganigan Lopez in what figures to be the latest in a long list of entertaining Puerto Rico vs. Mexico matchups.

Garcia (17-0, 14KOs) will fight for the second time both on DAZN and with trainer Eddy Reynoso, the latter whose services the 20-year old enlisted shortly after a hard-fought win over Carlos Morales last September. The move to Reynoso was encouraged as a next step I his progression from prospect to contender.

Reynoso is best known for his work with World middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, with whom Garcia now trains and claims to spar despite their being four weight divisions apart.

Garcia’s first fight with Reynoso and on DAZN came last December, appearing on the undercard of Alvarez’s first fight on the platform—and at New York City’s Madison Square Garden—since signing his record-breaking contract late last year.

For his part on the show, Garcia scored a 5th round knockout of Braulio Rodriguez in his second straight fight at lightweight after moving up from the 130-pound division.

Lopez (20-3-1, 14KOs)—who will celebrate his 25th birthday three weeks ahead of fight night—comes in on the heels of a 6th round knockout loss to fellow islander Jonathan Oquendo last October. He remains best known for a lopsided 10-round win over Orlando Cruz in June ’17, but has since lost two of his last three starts.

Whatever the fight does for Garcia’s career, it will serve as a welcome distraction from his recent reasons for making the news. The wildly popular young boxer found himself embroiled in social media drama both through his actions with an ex-girlfriend, as well as his recently calling out unbeaten 130-pound titlist Gervonta Davis.

The latter issue prompted Davis’ promoter and former pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather to offer a fight of his own, daring Garcia to take on Mayweather Promotions’ Rolando Romero. The fight offer—however real or grandstanding—was made with the promise of a $200,000 payday and a future shot at Davis should he win.

For now, any such talks regarding that scenario will likely remain limited to social media banter as Garcia has a real fight date on which to focus.

Also on the show according to Golden Boy brass, Eduardo ‘Rocky’ Hernandez will face an opponent to be determined. The bout will be the first for the unbeaten super featherweight contender since entering a co-promotional deal with Golden Boy Promotions late last year.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox