By Allan Fox: Oscar De La Hoya says he wants to make the fight between Ryan Garcia and Manny Pacquiao in late 2021 or early next year. The original ‘Golden Boy’ De La Hoya views the Pacquiao vs. Garcia fight as a “changing of the guard.”
The 22-year-old King Ryan (21-0, 18 KOs) will become a superstar after beating Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs), and it’ll be similar to how Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny both became famous after they beat De La Hoya.
With his 8.2 million Instagram followers and Hollywood movie star looks, Ryan doesn’t require a win over the former eight-division world champion Pacquiao to watch his fame skyrocket.
But it would greatly speed up the process if Ryan were to beat Pacquiao at the end of the year.
Pacquiao has a lot of different fighters to choose from, but Ryan has an advantage over the others due to his popularity. De La Hoya views Ryan as a combination of Brad Pitt and Elvis Presley.
Ryan Garcia is still improving
“The key word is IF,” said De La Hoya to SnowqueenLA when told that Tank Davis says he’ll knock out Ryan Garcia if he catches him with one of his big shots.
“Ryan Garcia, the longer people wait to fight him, the longer these fights take to happen, the more dangerous he’s going to get. Ryan Garcia, he wants Tank Davis tomorrow.
“He wants to fight and he says he’ll knock him out in two rounds, and we’re going to push for that fight because that’s what he wants.
“If for some reason it doesn’t get made, the more time that passes by, Ryan Garcia gets better and better.
“He’s going to become a force that is going to be unstoppable. When he tightens up his defense, when he gets stronger.
“He hasn’t developed his man strength yet, and he’s already very strong. His speed is impeccable.
“Yeah, I want that fight [Davis vs. Garcia] to happen, but if for some reason it doesn’t happen and it happens down the road. The more time that passes the better the chances for Ryan against anyone,” said De La Hoya.
It would be better for Ryan and Golden Boy Promotions if they wait until the pandemic is over and fans are allowed back into sporting events.
It wouldn’t be fair to Ryan and Davis if they stage the fight behind closed doors.
De La Hoya wants Garcia vs. Davis in a large stadium
“I feel a fight of that magnitude should be in front of 50,000 people,” said De La Hoya about the Tank Davis vs. Ryan Garcia match.
“It should be in Las Vegas in the very boxing event in the new Raider stadium in downtown Las Vegas.
We don’t want to leave all that money on the table, and scratch our heads and say, ‘Wow, we should have staged that fight when things got better with COVID,’ because we got to allow people to watch that fight.
This can be like the Super Bowl of boxing. I don’t know when that fight can happen. I’m hoping it can happen sooner than later.
“I don’t control PBC,” said De La Hoya. “Fights are still difficult to make for some reason within PBC.
“They have all the welterweights in the world, and they still can’t fight each other? What’s going on. Something is wrong there.
“I don’t understand it. We should be able to make the best fights happen. So imagine PBC working with a different promoter. It’s just difficult to make. It’s not impossible, just difficult to make,” said Oscar.
A large stadium is where the Garcia – Davis fight should take place, as the math could bring in many millions depending on the size of the stadium and the ticket prices.
Oscar wants Ryan Garcia vs. Manny Pacquiao in 2021
“I would make that in a heartbeat,” said De La Hoya about Ryan Garcia wanting Pacquiao. “I would literally make that fight.
“And I would make that fight at the end of this year or the first quarter of next year. I love that fight for Ryan. That takes Ryan to a whole another level.
“When you’re inside fighting with a legend, it’s kind of like changing of the guards. When I fought Floyd Mayweather, and he beat me, Floyd Mayweather skyrocketed to superstardom.
“And when Manny Pacquiao fought me and beat me, he skyrocketed to superstardom. This would be the same thing.
“It would be the changing of the guard for Ryan Garcia and Manny Pacquiao.
“Everybody has their flaws,” said De La Hoya when asked about Ryan’s defensive issues. “There’s not one perfect fighter out there that doesn’t get hit or lacks a little defense or a little offense,” said Oscar.
Pacquiao will make a decision whether he wants to face Ryan Garcia in 2021 or wait until early 2021. Manny could be facing Conor McGregor and Errol Spence Jr this year.
Ryan would need to wait until Pacquiao finishes up with those, and obviously, those guys would soften him up a little.
Garcia showed heart against Campbell
“Ryan Garcia, he’s a work in progress,” said De La Hoya. “He’s a fighter that is still learning. I believe this is his fourth fight with [trainer] Eddy Reynoso.
“Yes, in his last fight against Campbell, he got hit with a vicious left hook where a lot of fighters would have stayed down.
“A lot of fighters would have been knocked out. The one thing is showed me is Ryan Garcia not only has the heart, he has the championship mentality.
“He gets back up and wins the fight in a very, very impressive fashion. He’s not a boring fighter. He’s a very aggressive, very confident young man, and has a lot of flaws.
“But the wonderful thing is he’s willing to work at it. He wants to learn. And he wants to fight the best.
“He doesn’t want to fight one time, two fights a year. No, he wants to fight three, four, five times a year. He wants to fight the very best. At 22-years-old, he’s on his way to becoming a force to be reckoned with,” said De La Hoya.
The shot that Luke Campbell dropped Garcia with in the second round would have knocked out a lot of fighters.
Oscar glad Ryan got knocked down
“I’m actually glad he went down,” said De La Hoya about Ryan getting dropped in the second round by Campbell.
“The fight couldn’t have turned out better. Yes, he’s a pretty boy, yes, he’s cute, he’s handsome this. That’s great.
That’s wonderful for your brand, and to get commercials and sponsorships. You can sell out arenas, but he can fight. That’s one thing that he showed us that night that Ryan Garcia is the real deal.
“Ryan Garcia is a special fighter inside and outside of the ring,” said De La Hoya. “If you put together an Elvis Presley and Brad Pitt, a Canelo Alvarez, and Oscar De La Hoya, you have Ryan Garcia.
That’s how big he can be. When you think about it now with social media and the conventional like linear TV that’s out there.
“He’s literally generating millions and millions of eyeballs watching him, and he’s only 22-years-old. That’s the beauty of promoting a Ryan Garcia.
“Us at Golden Boy, we have a formula that we used with Canelo Alvarez where we helped out so many fighters where we basically promoted them to become superstars, and Ryan Garcia is one of those fighters that is the whole package.
When he fights, not only are you generating the boxing world’s eyeballs but also you’re attacking a new audience,” said De La Hoya.
It could be a good thing that Ryan was dropped by Luke, as he now knows what it’s like. Ryan also knows he can take a punch when he needs to.
Ryan Garcia in a position to become a global star
“All these little girls that want to watch him fight,” said De La Hoya about Ryan’s fans. “The grandmothers that love him, the aunts that want to kiss him because he’s so cute.
“It’s a phenomenon, and we’re very well positioned with him. The world of boxing should be very grateful for a Ryan Garcia because he can be the Tiger Woods of boxing where Tiger Woods brought in a whole new audience.
“Tiger Woods was able to help out the PGA to attracting more dollars. So Ryan Garcia is in a great position to become a global superstar.
“We’re super excited about how Golden Boy is positioned,” said De La Hoya. “We’ve been promoting for the last 20 years now, and we’ve been promoting the biggest events, including Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
“I promoted Deontay Wilder. People forget that we built all those fighters. So we have the formula to do it once again. What’s happening now is the new wave of new fighters.
“There’s a transitional stage that’s happening, and fighters like Vergil Ortiz, fighters like Ryan Garcia are the future of boxing.
“When you talk about Canelo, and he’s still in his prime, you think about the next generation that follows him are with Golden Boy,” said De La Hoya.
If Ryan can somehow defeat Pacquiao, it’ll take his career to the next level. He’ll be transformed into a star overnight.
Golovkin vs. Munguia being negotiated
The Jaime Munguias, who by the way, I’m in deep talks with GGG’s people to make that fight happen,” said De La Hoya. “So we’re excited about the future of Golden Boy.
“I can’t forget about Jo Jo Diaz. So there’s a lot of world champions and a lot of greats and prospects that are in the pipeline to become superstars.
“We’re going to continue to do what we do best. There are so many plans that we are brewing up to take boxing to another level with digital with the platforms.
“We’re here every day, working as hard as we can trying to come up with creative ideas to take boxing to a bigger audience,” said Oscar.
Gennadiy Golovkin vs. Jaime Munguia will be huge for this year if the fight gets made.
Oscar wants to make Bektemir Melikuziev a champion
“Bektemir Melikuziev, by the way, is 6-0 with 5 knockouts,” said De La Hoya. “I actually want to take Bob Arum’s blueprint with what he did with Lomachenko and do the same with Bek.
“I think Bek can become a world champion in only eight fights, which would set a record there.
“The boxing world is a small community of characters and family. We should work together to grow the sport to keep continuing to grow and expand because boxing is never going to go anywhere.
“Boxing is going to continue to grow if we come up with solutions to work together to prosper,” said De La Hoya.
Bektemir Melikuziev’s scheduled January 30th fight against Sergey Kovalev will likely be canceled. Kovalev, 37, reportedly tested positive for synthetic testosterone. That could be off depending on the results of Kovalev’s B-sample.