By Matt Lieberman: Ryan Garcia turned down an offer from Golden Boy Promotions for him to fight on July 4 in their card at the Fantasy Springs Resort in Indio, California. The proposal wasn’t to the liking of Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs), who reportedly was offered $200,000 for a fight that he wanted $500,000. Being considerably less than what he wanted, it wasn’t going to work for Ryan Garcia.
Ryan just signed a new deal with Golden Boy Promotions that is said to have been a long-term deal. If Ryan and Golden Boy are already bumping heads two-fights into the new agreement, it could be a good idea for them to part ways.
Frankly, the chances of Golden Boy letting a future star like Ryan Garcia go is nonexistent. He’s the guy that will likely replace Canelo Alvarez, and Golden Boy can’t afford to let Ryan go.
King Ryan Garcia could fight next in September
Ryan isn’t hurting for money like some boxers, and he can afford to wait until he receives the right offer from Golden Boy for him to fight. At 21, Ryan is one of the most wealthy fighters in boxing for that age. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Ryan’s net worth is $10 million. That’s not bad for a young warrior that still hasn’t won a world title.
Golden Boy Promotions is dealing with a limited budget from them coming back earlier than DAZN had planned in staging an event on July 4. DAZN envisioned Golden Boy returning in September with the full budget for that fight card, but they agreed to the July 4 event.
Recently, Ryan went after DAZN in complaining about the $200,000 offer made to him. Ryan felt that DAZN wasn’t showing him the love by offering him the big money to reflect the numbers that he’s bringing in.
The budget wasn’t there for July 4 card
With the budget being smaller for the July card for Golden Boy, they offered Ryan $200K rather than what he wanted. He turned it down, and then everything kind of blew up with Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya revealing that Ryan had turned down the offer for July 4 card and that Vergil Ortiz would be in the top spot.
Why De La Hoya decided to Tweet the information about Ryan turning down the offer for the July 4 fight card is the magic question.
Was De La Hoya trying to teach Ryan a lesson by Tweeting the info to the boxing public? If that was a strategy by Oscar to let Ryan know that he needs to accept his offers to him, even if he feels they’re less what he wants, it might be futile. Ryan knows what he’s worth as a fighter, and not going to take the little money.
Moving forward, it would be smart for De La Hoya not to Tweet each time Ryan Garcia turns down an offer from Golden Boy to fight on one of their cards. That move seems counterproductive and not something that’s going to work to get Ryan to bend to De La Hoya’s wishes.
Has De La Hoya burned his bridges with Ryan Garcia?
In the long run, De La Hoya Tweeting about Ryan turning down offers probably isn’t going to help their relationship. Right now, Ryan isn’t a substantial money-making superstar, but if he becomes that soon, De La Hoya may live to regret burning his bridges so early on with him.
Ryan can make a lot of money working with Premier Boxing Champions adviser Al Haymon, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn. They’d all love to have Ryan Garcia as part of their team.
The opponent that Golden Boy Promotions had in mind for Ryan Garcia to fight on the July 4 card was never announced. We heard these names mentioned: Abner Mares and Hector Tanajara. If it was Tanajara that Golden Boy wanted Garcia to fight, then it’s understandable why Ryan was only being offered $200K.
The fighter that Ryan Garcia was supposed to be battling on the Fourth of July was Jorge Linares, but that match-up couldn’t happen the inability for Jorge to get into the country from Japan. Ryan vs. Linares was a fight that a lot of boxing fans were keen on seeing.
Ryan would have been offered a top dollar to fight Linares, but not the bottom dweller Tanajara. That would have been a simple tune-up for Ryan against a guy that can’t punch and is a step down from his last opponent Francisco Fonseca.
Bad timing to ask for more money
It wasn’t a good time for Ryan Garcia to ask for the larger purse that he wanted for an event that was operating on a smaller budget on July 4. If Golden Boy didn’t let Ryan know about the limited budget, then that would explain why he expected to get his usual.
De La Hoya showing love for Vergil Ortiz
De La Hoya put Ryan Garcia in the spotlight with this Tweet this week:
“Due to Team @KingRyanG decision not to accept a July 4th bout, we will now return in late July with the future of boxing 🥊 @vergilortiz , more exciting details to follow @GoldenBoyBoxing.”
Ryan then reacted to De La Hoya’s Tweet by saying:
“You do realize that you’re supposed to be my promoter, not a hatter, right?”
Although Ryan deleted the post a short time later, he wasn’t fast enough for it to be seen by a lot of people.
Some fans reacted to this Tweet by De La Hoya by viewing him as now pushing Golden Boy fighter Vergil Ortiz Jr over Ryan Garcia in hyping him up. They think De La Hoya will now put everything he’s got in marketing Ortiz Jr instead of Ryan. That’s not the case.
Even if De La Hoya does put more work into building Ortiz’s career, that’s not going to change the trajectory of where Ryan Garcia is heading. Ryan’s popularity in boxing has nothing to do with De La Hoya pushing him.
It’s more to do with Garcia’s movie-star looks and his explosive one-punch knockouts. On top of that, Ryan’s soundbites make him perfect to attract attention to himself and his fights. Few other fighters in the sport of boxing have the verbal skills that Ryan possesses.
Vergil Ortiz not as charismatic as Ryan Garcia
Welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz doesn’t possess the same charisma, looks, and doesn’t produce the same highlight reel knockouts as the 21-year-old Ryan. Just because Garcia pulled out of the July 4 card because he didn’t want to accept the offer that Golden Boy gave to him, it doesn’t mean De La Hoya will abandon him.
Why would he do that? De La Hoya would be shooting himself in the foot if he ignores Ryan and puts all of his attention into Vergil Ortiz. It’s Ryan that has the best chance to replace Canelo Alvarez as a future star, not Vergil, who is more of a heavy-handed slugger.
The only way De La Hoya can slow Ryan Garcia’s career down is by keeping him inactive and matching him against soft opponents. De La Hoya won’t do that though because he knows DAZN needs subscribers, and the Ryan Garica and Canelo are the ones that bring them in.
“Things are not irreparable right now,” said Ryan’s adviser Lupe Valencia to ESPN. “We’re going to get through this, but for this particular fight, Golden Boy asked DAZN to do a battle with a limited budget.
“DAZN was planning to come back in September. Golden Boy wanted them to come back earlier and headline Ryan. DAZN agreed to come back earlier with a limited budget.
“We weren’t willing to come back earlier on the limited budget. That’s really the gist of it,” said Valencia on Ryan Garcia, not wanting to agree to fight with a limited budget for the July 4 card.
Ryan’s star appeal won’t dim from this
Yeah, Ryan Garcia will receive some hate by a small number of hardcore boxing fans, but the casual fans that don’t keep up with all drama in the sport will never hear about any of this. As such, the impact on Ryan’s career from him turning down Golden Boy’s offer to fight on July 4 will be negligible. This won’t register with the greater boxing public, just the hardcore fans.
De La Hoya needs to think if the future when he deals with Ryan right now because if he ruins his relationship with him now, he’ll wind up losing the star when his contract expires.
For Oscar’s sake, you would hope that the current deal is a long one. If Ryan can move on after a year and become a massive star for Top Rank or PBC, it would look bad for Oscar that he no longer has him.
Just keep it moving forward 🙏
— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) June 17, 2020
