When Mikey Garcia returned to the ring following a 2½-year layoff because of his contract battle with former promoter Top Rank, there was a familiar face at ringside watching him very closely: promoter Richard Schaefer.

Like Garcia, Schaefer is also returning to boxing after a lengthy sabbatical and interested in signing Garcia to his newly founded Ringstar Sports outfit.

Garcia, a former junior lightweight and featherweight titleholder, scored four knockdowns against former featherweight titlist Elio Rojas en route to a punishing fifth-round knockout in their junior welterweight bout, which took place July 30 on the Carl Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz undercard at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

“I wouldn’t know any promoter who wouldn’t be interested in signing Mikey Garcia. He is the real deal, the total package,” Schaefer told ESPN.com. “He could become the next big pay-per-view star. That’s what I think. He has the skills, he’s exciting, he has a good personality and very importantly, he is intelligent and fluent in English and Spanish, which is important if you want to become a pay-per-view star in the U.S.”

So is Schaefer on the verge of signing Garcia?

“I have been friendly with him for a while, but I don’t want to comment further on it,” Schaefer said.

Schaefer, the co-founder of Golden Boy Promotions and its longtime CEO, left the company after a falling out with partner Oscar De La Hoya in June 2014. As part of his contractual non-compete language, he was required to stay away from promoting until last August but took even more time away from the sport than required. He wanted to move slowly in his return and founded Ringstar Sports in June, securing promoter licenses in various states and making plans to begin promoting boxing events again this fall.

Garcia (35-0, 29 KOs), who would like to fight for a lightweight world title before eventually going for another at junior welterweight, maintained after the fight that he remains a free agent when it comes to promotions, but that he is willing to listen to offers “if they are in my best interest to do so.”

He looked sharp against Rojas despite the long layoff and said he hopes to fight again quickly. With welterweight titlist Danny Garcia expected to face former titleholder Andre Berto, possibly Oct. 15 on Showtime at Staples Center in Los Angeles, it would not be a surprise to see Schaefer promote that card and try to make a deal with Garcia, 28, of Oxnard, California, under which he would appear in the co-feature.

“I think he can become the face of the L.A. boxing scene and then go to Las Vegas as well,” Schaefer said. “He’s not shying away from fighting anybody. We will see if we can put something together. I was very impressed with his performance against Rojas. I was just as impressed with the warm reception he got in New York from the fans. There were so many people chanting ‘Mikey! Mikey!’ That was as impressive as the performance was.

“It shows you there is a void out there for the fans to get behind a guy who is exciting and in the right weight classes. I am very bullish on Mikey Garcia. Anybody who ends up in the Mikey Garcia business should consider themselves lucky.”