By Sean Jones: Oscar De La Hoya is raving about the “crossover” appeal that Ryan Garcia has with both men and women, and he’s excited about his superstar potential in the future. Ryan, 21, is following in the footsteps of the original ‘Golden Boy’ De La Hoya, and there’s no telling how far he can go.
Although boxing is currently at a standstill, De La Hoya wants the unbeaten lightweight contender Ryan (20-0, 17 KOs) to fight for a world title when it starts back up. That’s where Ryan will prove whether he has the potential to become a star in boxing. He’ll need to capture a world title and be able to defend it against all comers.
At this early stage in Garcia’s career, he has plenty of boxing fans that doubt his ability. They think he’s mostly just a social media creation, who has been hyped without having faced anyone talented for him to prove that he’s the real thing.
De La Hoya raves about Ryan Garcia’s crossover appeal
“Every challenge that I was supposed to step up to, I was supposed to lose, and I proved everybody wrong,” said De La Hoya to The Ring Digital on Ryan Garcia.
“So as long as he continues to prove, the sky is the limit for him. He’s a crossover. He’s a fighter that women love, and men love too. So it’s awesome, it’s great, and it’s a lot of fun promoting him,” said De La Hoya.
All this stuff that De La Hoya says about Ryan’s crossover appeal won’t mean anything if he’s not good enough to beat the top fighters at 135. Specifically, Ryan Garcia must prove that he can beat the big dogs at lightweight in these fighters:
- Devin Haney
- Gervonta Davis
- Vasiliy Lomachenko
- Luke Campbell
- Javier Fortuna
- Teofimo Lopez
Some of those guys are fighters that Ryan will likely never face due to the politics of boxing. I’m talking about Lomachenko and Teofimo. Both of them are with Top Rank Boxing, and it’s implausible that Golden Boy would take the chance of putting Ryan in with either of those fighters.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum would probably love the idea of matching Lomachenko and or Teofimo against Ryan, but Golden Boy would surely dig in their heels and choose not to make the fights.
For Ryan to show that he’s a star, he at least must beat Tank Davis and Devin Haney because those are fights that can be made. Again, Golden Boy might not want to let Ryan fight someone dangerous like Tank Davis. Haney is more up Ryan’s alley because he’s not a big puncher, and he has minimal experience as a pro.
Day 3000 in quarantine 😅🥊 pic.twitter.com/RwZHo0bGGK
— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) April 7, 2020
Ryan Garcia has that ‘It factor’ – De La Hoya
“He has that ‘it factor,’ the gift of obviously not only fighting in the ring and proving himself over again,” said De La Hoya to The Ring Digital. “People were saying, ‘Duno, that’s his real test. He’s going to fail.’ What did he do? He knocked him out in one round. That’s what happened with me,” De La Hoya said.
Boxing fans weren’t saying that Romero Duno is a real test. Oscar is exaggerating a little. Duno was a complete unknown with the casual boxing fans, and no one was saying anything when Golden Boy matched Ryan against him. The only fighters that boxing fans have been pushing Golden Boy to match against Ryan are Tank Davis, Lomachenko, Haney, and Teofimo.
Those are the ones that people have been calling for Golden Boy to put in with Garcia. Duno is a complete unknown fighter. He might as well be from another galaxy because no one knew he was, and they weren’t excited when the Garcia-Duno fight was announced.
Oscar makes light of Ryan’s retirement comment
“I said that once in my career,” De La Hoya said in remarking about Ryan’s comment about wanting to retire by the age of 26. Ryan, there’s nothing bigger than boxing. At the end of this year, he’s definitely going to fight against the top guys for a world title, and we’re looking forward to it,” said De La Hoya on Ryan Garcia.
Ryan hasn’t turned 22 yet, and it sounds silly for him to be talking about retirement. The fact that Ryan Garcia is already talking about hanging up his gloves seems to suggest that he’s worried about being found out in the future by other up and coming fighters.
When Ryan meets up with a fighter that can take his power or neutralize it somehow, he’s going to be in for a world of hurt. If he can’t defend himself against the shots from a high-pressure fighter, it’s going to be good night for him. Once Ryan starts losing, if he’s not capable of avenging the losses, then he’ll have a big decision to make. He can either retire or hang in there as a contender, and do the best he can in certain fights.
