A beaming Oscar De La Hoya went live on his Instagram stream yesterday to talk about how happy and excited he is about the now-agreed fight between his guy Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis. As fans know, news broke yesterday telling us how the two in-their-prime stars (perhaps superstars of the future) have “agreed terms,” the fight set for Las Vegas in April.
De La Hoya, who had to negotiate hard with Davis’s people, actually says he had to “bend over backwards” to get the fight over the line. Now that the fight is on, De La Hoya is naturally picking Ryan Garcia to win. But “The Golden Boy,” who, on multiple occasions during his own ring career, took on risky opposition in massive fights, backs Garcia due to his skills as well as due to the fact that he promotes him.
“I want to bring the best fights to you, that’s it,” bearded, smiling De La Hoya said. “That’s what we (Golden Boy) do best, basically. Ryan wanted this fight, Tank Davis wants this fight, so we’ve come to terms, and we bent over backwards making everything happen and making sure everybody’s happy. All we need to do is sign on the dotted line. That’s basically it. So I’m happy that DAZN and Showtime are gonna work together to bring you guys this special fight. You don’t wanna miss this one. I have to go with Ryan, obviously, because he’s my Golden Boy fighter, but not only that, I think Ryan had the speed, the power, the intellect, the ring generalship. He has that height; he has the quick-twitch movements. It’s gonna be interesting, gonna be fun to watch.”
De La Hoya signed off by saying how this fight is one where “whoever makes the first mistake is gonna get caught and possibly get knocked out.”
So who makes the first mistake, Garcia, 23-0(19), or Davis, 27-0(25)? Who is the faster of the two fighters, of both hand and foot? Who carries the edge in firepower? Who has the higher ring IQ? Who takes the better shot?
These questions and more will be answered next April, and fight fans cannot wait. De La Hoya included.