Oscar De La Hoya says that different people are already trying to lure lightweight prospect, Ryan Garcia, away from Golden Boy Promotions after he recently declined an offer to headline the companies’ July 4 card on DAZN.
De La Hoya maintains that Golden Boy has no worries about anyone being able to steal Ryan because they have a contract with the 21-year-old.
Ryan Garcia complained on social media after he turned down the offer to headline on July 4, and got the attention of a lot of boxing fans. You can bet that some rival promoters also took note of Ryan’s bellyaching, and if they get a chance, they’ll scoop him up and pay him what he wants and keep him busy.
In 2019, Ryan Garcia fought only two times, which is an incredibly low number for a fighter that Golden Boy is attempting to build into a star.
King Ryan recently turned down an offer that he viewed as being too low for him to be in the main event on Golden Boy’s card on July 4. In a kneejerk, De La Hoya reacted oddly by broadcasting Ryan’s refusal on social media and then giving glowing words of praise towards 22-year-old Vergil Ortiz Jr, who will be headlining Golden Boy’s July 24 card.
De La Hoya repeatedly says he sees Ortiz Jr as a future star and a world champion. However, Ryan Garia is the one that moves the needle with boxing fans, and he’s the one with the charisma and the ability to score one-punch knockouts. Ortiz Jr is more of a blue-collar type of welterweight, who wears his opposition down slowly with an accumulation of punches.
De La Hoya: Everyone is trying to take Ryan Garcia away
“Rumors are starting to circulate about certain people trying to take fighters away from us, which is fine because ultimately we’re protected with contracts, so there’s no issue there,” said De La Hoya to Ring TV on Ryan Garcia.
“But when you have a top, top prospect like Ryan Garcia everyone and their mother is going to try to take him away because he does move the needle, and therefore, we pay him accordingly.”
Why wouldn’t the promoters want to try and pluck Ryan Garcia away from Golden Boy? That’s how it goes. Recently, former Golden Boy fighter Jermell Charlo advised Ryan Garcia to leave the promotion to come over to PBC.
Charlo says he wasn’t making a lot of money when he was with Golden Boy, and only started doing well after he left them. It comes down to this.
If Ryan Garcia isn’t happy with his situation with Golden Boy, then it’s up to them to try and please him. If he’s turning down their offers for fights and only fighting twice a year, that’s a bad sign. Ryan should be fighting at least three times a minimum per year at this early stage in his career.
Ideally, Ryan should be fighting four times a year against increasingly better opposition. Has that been happening? You can debate whether Ryan Garcia is being put in with weaker opponents. In 2018, he beat a good fighter in Carlos Morales, who pushed him hard in a close 10 round decision fight.
Since then, Golden Boy has matched Ryan against weaker opponents in Francisco Fonseca, Romero Duno, Jose Lopez, and Braulio Rodriguez. Ryan is going backward against increasingly more vulnerable opposition compared to when he fought Morales.
Golden Boy will keep offering King Ryan fights
“We’re going to keep offering him fights and if he keeps turning them down, then there’s nothing we can do,” said De La Hoya in commenting on Ryan Garcia rejecting his recent offer for July 4.
“It was way more than his contract states. We want to make sure because he moves the needle. There’s no one else that moves the needle,” said De La Hoya.
De La Hoya isn’t saying when he plans on attempting to get Ryan Garcia back in the ring. It was rumored that Ryan would be fighting in September, but De La Hoya isn’t saying if that’ll be the case.
What’s essential is that De La Hoya and Golden Boy don’t stop making offers to Ryan Garica because of him turning down the money to headline their July 4 card. For Ryan to have a chance to become a star for Golden Boy, he’s going to need to be kept busy fighting as frequently as possible.
If they’re just going to let Ryan rot because he wouldn’t take the money offered for the July 4 card, then they both lose. How long would that last if Golden Boy let Ryan stagnate without offering him fights? They might as well let Ryan Garcia go to another promoter that can provide him with matches.
De La Hoya mentioned in the interview with Ring TV that things are different now due to the pandemic, and the money might not be the same as it was before. Whether Ryan will be willing to agree to less money than he was making earlier is unknown at this point.
Oscar says July 24 card will be just as significant as July 4 would have been
“We signed the richest deal for any type of prospect ever in boxing and his lawyer, Lupe (Valencia), made this deal happen. And now Lupe’s not satisfied with what they negotiated?” said De La Hoya on Ryan Garcia.
“It just doesn’t make sense to me, so we just had to go with Vergil Ortiz on July 24. I would have loved it to be on July 4th, it would have been huge, but July 24 will be just as big,” said an optimistic De la Hoya.
Oscar doesn’t expect that his July 24 card headlined by Vergil Ortiz Jr vs. Samuel Vargas will be any less significant compared to what the July 4 card would have been with Ryan Garcia in the main event. Welterweight contender Ortiz (15-0, 15 KOs) is a good fighter, but his opponent Vargas is a journeyman, and he’s not someone that a lot of boxing fans will get excited about watching.
Vargas already has losses to Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Errol Spence Jr, and Luis Collazo. De La Hoya might be kidding himself if he believes that July 24 would be as big as a card on July 4. The July 24 date isn’t as good, and Ortiz-Vargas is a showcase type of mismatch. It’s not a great fight.
De La Hoya didn’t say who he planned on matching Ryan Garcia against on July 4. Although Oscar mentioned Jorge Linares as one of the names that he would have liked for Ryan to fight on that date, it wasn’t going to happen. Linares wouldn’t have been able to get into the States because of the travel ban. The names that are rumored for Ryan Garcia to have potentially fought on July 4 are these two: Mercito Gesta and Hector Tanajara. Those guys are still arguably below Carlos Morales in talent. It would have been a waste of Ryan’s time to fight either of them.