By Matt Lieberman: Undefeated lightweight contender Ryan Garcia has taken to social media to speak out about his promoters at Golden Boy one day after Saul Canelo Alvarez complained about them after being stripped of his IBF middleweight title. Ryan and Canelo both share the same trainer in Eddy Reynoso, and train out of San Diego, California.
The 20-year-old Garcia (18-0, 15 KOs) says he deserves “the right promotion” for his fights, and for him not being expected to do the promotion himself due to his large fan base. #5 WBA, #6 WBO & #12 WBC Garcia was hoping to face #10 WBO Romero Duno (20-1, 15 KOs) in September, but he decided not to take the fight, because he wanted the contest to he a headliner. Ryan says he wanted the Duno fight in November as the headliner.
The Los Angeles based Duno, 23, recently struggled in beating journeyman Juan Antonio Rodriguez (30-8, 26 KOs) by a ninth round technical decision last May in Indio, California. Rodriguez was another fighter that Ryan was willing to fight in November in the main event.
Ryan Garcia speaks out against Golden Boy
The bottom line is, i deserve the right promotion for fights with the full time to promote and not be thrown into a fight and have my self do the whole promotion, knowing my fan base they will tune in no matter what but I deserve to have a full promotion fight with duno!
— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) August 4, 2019
To all my fans, yes i was supposed to fight Romero Duno in sept, i decided to not go with that bc i wanted to fight him as main event in November and not be some co main event on a card that will be driven by me, I also elected to fight the guy that gave duno problems for sept!
— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) August 4, 2019
Garcia needs to fight bigger names
Ryan Garcia fighting Romero Duno or the 31-year-old journeyman Juan Antonio Rodriguez in the headliner fight in November is a little hard to get excited about. Duno and Rodriguez aren’t good enough fighters to get a lot of boxing fans excited at seeing Ryan fight them.
At 20-years-old, Garcia is still young, but putting him in the main event against the likes of Duno or Rodriguez would be asking a lot. The question is would either of those guys interest the boxing public in being matched against the young Garcia?
To be fighting in a main event on his own card, Ryan arguably should be fighting these type of guys:
- Shakur Stevenson
- Devin Haney
- Jorge Linares
- Ricard Commey
- Teofimo Lopez
- Robert Easter Jr.
- Luke Campbell
- Yuriorkis Gamboa
It’s very unlikely that Ryan could beat any of those guys. Even though Ryan is same age as Haney, Teofimo and Shakur, he’s trailing both guys by a long ways in terms of development. If Golden Boy were to throw Ryan Garcia inside the ring with Stevenson, Teofimo or Haney, it would likely end badly for him.
Saul Alvarez upset at being stripped of IBF title
Canelo Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs) is upset at Golden Boy Promotions, because he didn’t have knowledge to a deal that they had with the IBF. Alvarez ended up being stripped by the International Boxing Federation when Golden Boy couldn’t get a exemption for him to put his IBF mandatory Sergiy Derevyanchenko on hold while he fought a unification against WBO champion Demetrius Andrade. Canelo wants to unify the middleweight division, but now he’s lost his IBF belt. The World Boxing Council recently changed his status by moving him to WBC Franchise champion. It’s unclear how Canelo feels about that move. Jermall Charlo is now the WBC 160 pound champion.
I’m very upset and ashamed with my fans, to be unfairly stripped of my belt by the IBF, but specially when i did not have the knowledge of the agreement that GBP match maker had signed.
— Canelo Alvarez (@Canelo) August 2, 2019