Oscar De La Hoya apparently is trying to make a different high-profile fight for Ryan Garcia next.

De La Hoya announced on social media Wednesday that his company, Golden Boy Promotions, is close to finalizing a deal for Garcia to fight former WBC/WBO 140-pound champion Jose Ramirez next. Ramirez recently signed a multi-fight contract with Golden Boy after parting ways with longtime promoter Top Rank Inc.

“Looking like @RyanGarcia vs. Jose Ramirez is getting close and happening,” De La Hoya wrote on X.

The retired six-division champion tagged Garcia in his message on X, but Garcia hadn’t responded by the time this story was posted.

Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) previously announced on social media January 6 that he wanted to fight WBA super lightweight champ Rolly Romero next, not Devin Haney, the rival Garcia targeted after Haney outclassed Regis Prograis in their 12-round, 140-pound championship clash December 9 at Chase Center in San Francisco. Haney (31-0, 15 KOs), boxing’s first fully unified lightweight champion of the four-belt era, won the WBC 140-pound championship from Prograis (29-2, 24 KOs).

The 25-year-old Garcia, of Victorville, California, shifted his focus from challenging Haney to facing Romero next after spending some time with Floyd Mayweather, Romero’s promoter, early this month in the Las Vegas area.

De La Hoya seemed to reference Romero in a statement Tuesday on X, which read, “all these fighters pricing themselves out!!”

The WBA has also ordered Romero (15-1, 13 KOs) to make his first defense of its 140-pound championship against Ismael Barroso.

Romero, of North Las Vegas, Nevada, beat Barroso (25-4-2, 23 KOs) very controversially May 13 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Venezuela’s Barroso earned a rematch of that ninth-round, technical-knockout loss by blowing out England’s Ohara Davies (25-3, 18 KOs) in the first round of their fight for the WBA interim title January 6 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

Ramirez, meanwhile, planned to make his Golden Boy debut sometime in April after turning down a $2 million payday for a fight with WBO junior welterweight champ Teofimo Lopez on February 8 in Las Vegas. The 31-year-old Ramirez changed promoters because he felt Bob Arum’s company didn’t have a long-range plan for him after he could’ve opposed Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs) for a chance to win back the WBO belt he lost to Josh Taylor in their 140-pound title unification fight in May 2021 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

Facing Garcia is just the type of opportunity Ramirez sought when he signed with Golden Boy.

"Ryan and Jose would set a gate record in California," Rick Mirigian, Ramirez's manager, told BoxingScene.com. "They're both massive draws and it's an incredible fight. It's a made-for-TV scrap, with endless storylines."

Ramirez (28-1, 18 KOs), a 2012 U.S. Olympian from Avenal, California, has lost only a 12-round unanimous decision to Scotland’s Taylor (19-1, 13 KOs).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.