By Sean Jones: The $200,000 that Ryan Garcia was offered for his July 4 fight on DAZN reportedly isn’t to his liking so that he won’t be fighting on that date as his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions had planned. Garcia, 21, is ready to take on the best fighters in the 135-pound division, but his management still isn’t putting him in with the A-level opposition.
Ryan is only two fights into his new contract with Golden Boy Promotions, and already he’s not happy with things. At the time, the deal was said to be one of the biggest financially for a young prospect, but Ryan doesn’t seem satisfied. He wants DAZN to contact him directly without using his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions as the middlemen.
It’s not expected that DAZN will speak to Ryan Garcia directly without his promoters acting as the go-between. If Garcia were his own promoter, then DAZN interacting with him would make sense, but that’s not the case right now.
King Ryan wants DAZN to pay him his worth
Garcia (20-0, 17 K.O.s) says he doesn’t understand how he’s the third most popular fighter that performs on DAZN, and yet he’s not getting the big money that other fighters.
Golden Boy Promotions’ July 4 card will still be going ahead, but without Ryan Garcia in the main event. Instead of Ryan as the headliner, unbeaten welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. (15-0, 15 K.O.s) will be fighting as the top position on the card against a still to be determined opponent.
At this point, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya and president Eric Gomez have a good idea of what they have in Ryan Garcia in terms of talent. The fact that they’re not matching Ryan against the top-rung lightweights is telling.
It suggests that they have doubts about his ability to win against the best, so they’re matching him against the C-level fighters like Francisco Fonseca, Romero Duno, and Jose Lopez.
Golden Boy was supposed to put Ryan in with 35-year-old Jorge Linares on July 4 to test him out, but Jorge can’t get into the U.S. right now because of the travel ban. It’s too bad because that fight would have given fans and Golden Boy a chance to see if Ryan Garcia is ready to be matched against A-level opposition.
Linares has lost a lot from his game due to age, but he’s still an excellent B-level fighter.
At this point, it’s hard to say that Ryan deserves the big money that we’re seeing starfighters like Joshua and Canelo making.
Ryan Garcia complaining about being held back
“Why am I being held back financially? What is the problem here? Why is DAZN giving out big numbers to guys fighting nobodies?” said Ryan Garcia to Chris Mannix at Sports Illustrated.
“I’m not asking for $100 million. Just give me the check I deserve. How am I one of the biggest fighters in the world and I get bigger paychecks outside of boxing? I’m tired of going through middlemen. DAZN needs to call me. I need to hear from them why stuff can’t happen,” said Ryan Garcia.
It would be a significant risk for DAZN to give Ryan Garcia the kind of money that Canelo and Anthony Joshua are getting. What happens if Ryan falls apart the first time he’s put in with a good opponent?
Say you will about Canelo being involved in a lot of controversial decisions, but he has a proven track record against a lot of famous fighters. Canelo has captured world titles in four weight classes.
In Joshua’s case, he’s been a world champion off and on since 2016. Additionally, Joshua is a heavyweight division. Joshua is a proven commodity, and he brings in massive crowds in stadium fights in the U.K.
Ryan Garcia’s accomplishments pale in comparison to Joshua and Canelo. The jury is still out whether he’ll amount to anything besides being a good contender and a social media star. If Ryan’s career falls apart as soon as he faces his first top fighter at 135, it won’t surprise a lot of boxing fans, who view him as a product of hype.
The matches that can be made for Ryan are against fighters like Devin Haney, and Luke Campbell. Those two should be Ryan’s immediate target for after the lockdown ends.
Ryan Garcia: I’m top three
“I’m not getting respect in the business matters,” Garcia said. “They promote me as one of the biggest names that they have got. I’m not feeling the extra love that they claim I’m getting shown. I’m one of their most-viewed fighters.
“Guaranteed, top-three. I’m getting the views. I’m getting the clicks. More than anyone but Canelo [Alvarez] and [Anthony] Joshua. Where’s my love?”
Ryan might be a top-three fighter with DAZN, but that doesn’t mean that he’s better than some of the other guys that don’t bring in the same numbers as him.
For example, former IBF middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs and WBO champ Demetrius Andrade are guys that have loads of talent, and they’ve proven themselves. Unfortunately, they’re not hugely popular and lack the 6.4 million followers that Ryan has on social media.
According to Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez, Ryan Garcia wasn’t taking a cut in pay for his fight. But the fight would have been without a live audience, and it was coming at a wrong time for the U.S. economy. Ryan was going to get more than the minimum for his contract, says Gomez.
Ryan can change things for the positive once he starts beating the top dogs at 135. If Golden Boy can put Ryan in with the guys like Vasiliy Lomachenko and Tank Davis, we’ll see if he’s got the talent to be one of the elites in boxing. Once Ryan proves he’s one of the best inside the ring, he won’t need to worry as much about the money.
Right now, Ryan is in an awkward position with him still unproven, and it’s also not a good time for him to be asking for more money. What Ryan needs to do is put pressure on Golden Boy Promotions to keep him busy.
Garcia targeting Tank Davis and Haney
Besides not happy with the money offered to him, Ryan Garcia also wants to know why he can’t fight non-Golden Boy fighters Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Devin Haney.
Those are the fighters that Ryan wants to fight, and he’s tired of hearing the excuses about the other guys being promoted by other companies. Ryan isn’t afraid to lose, and he doesn’t want to be matched against less than the best.
Further, Garcia wonders why WBO featherweight champion Shakur Stevenson (13-0, 7 K.O.s) is fighting tonight on ESPN, and but he’s still not getting his chance. One explanation for that is Stevenson’s promoters at Top Rank are organized and has been on the ball working hard to stage fights behind closed doors.
In comparison, Golden Boy Promotions haven’t shown the same initiative to put together the fights without fans. It’s a lot of back-breaking work that Top Rank is dealing with to stage their cards during the pandemic, and it’s not all that unexpected that Golden Boy isn’t looking to start things up as early as they have.
Ryan views himself only behind Anthony Joshua and Canelo Alvarez as the most prominent attractions on DAZN, and yet he’s not making the big money that they are. The $200K that the 21-year-old lightweight contender ‘Kingry’ Garcia isn’t in the same ballpark as the big money Joshua and Canelo Alvarez are getting.
On the flip side, those two fighters are proven world champions and have been around for a while. In contrast, ‘The Flash’ Ryan Garcia has only been in the professional ranks for four years since 2016, and his best wins have come against fringe contenders Romero Duno and Francisco Fonseca.
Garcia still not fighting elite-level opposition
Ryan’s July 4 fight on DAZN was supposed to be held without an audience against 34-year-old Abner Mares (31-3-1, 15 K.O.s), a former three-division world champion who hasn’t fought in two years since 2018. It wasn’t going to be for a world title on the line for Ryan vs. Mares.
With that level of opponent, it’s kind of not unexpected that Ryan Garcia isn’t being offered colossal money. The combination of a weak opponent, no title on the line, and the weak economy in the U.S. resulted in Ryan not getting the big money offer that he may have wanted.
It would have meant something if Ryan had fought Mares seven years ago before he started losing to the likes of Jhonny Gonzalez and Leo Santa Cruz. But for the fight to happen now, it looks like a stay-busy fight for Ryan Garcia against a shot fighter, who left his best behind him 3,000 yesterdays ago.
Ryan vs. Mares likely would have done mediocre numbers on DAZN in terms of bringing in new subscribers. For Ryan to pull in the numbers, he needs to fight these guys: Gervonta Davis, Devin Haney, Vasiliy Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez, Shakur Stevenson, and Oscar Valdez.
The fight wouldn’t have proven much given the advanced age and the lack of size of Mares, who would be coming up in weight two divisions to face Ryan at 135. Garcia doesn’t say how much he was expecting to get for his July 4 fight on DAZN.
If it were millions, that would be surprising given that he’s not a world champion, and he would have been facing an inactive fighter [Mares] that is viewed as being over-the-hill in the eyes of fans.
