By Jack Tiernan: Oscar De La Hoya is inviting promoters to call him to begin making offers to match their top fighters against Ryan Garcia after his April 9th fight against Emmanuel Tagoe at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
De La Hoya says he’s open to matching the 23-year-old Ryan Garcia against top stars like Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis or anyone in his next bout, as long as he successfully defeats Tagoe (32-1, 15 KOs).
King Ry Garcia is returning to the ring after a fifteen-month injury layoff to headline on DAZN against the 33-year-old Tagoe in San Antonio, Texas.
Garcia vs. Tagoe is a fight that could very well be a precursor to Ryan facing the winner of the June 5th undisputed lightweight match between George Kambosos Jr. and Devin Haney.
Garcia-Tagoe is a perfect setup battle to prepare Ryan to fight the winner of the Kambosos vs. Haney battle for the undisputed championship.
The only fight out there that would give De La Hoya reason to pause matching Ryan against Kambosos or Haney would be WBA lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, but he would still need to win his May 28th match-up against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero, and then leave Mayweather Promotions for a fight of that nature to happen.
Although Tank recently revealed that the Rolly fight is the last one on his contract with Mayweather Promotion, that doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t re-sign with them.
If they convince Tank to extend his contract, that pretty much rules out Ryan Garcia fighting him.
“It goes to show you the discipline, hard work, and the talent that he has. He does hit hard, he’s a fast fighter, and I think speed kills literally, and he uses that to his advantage,” said Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya to K.O Artist Sports talking about Ryan Garcia.
“He’s right on track to get back on the rails, and full speed ahead and let’s go,” said De La Hoya on the career of the 23-year-old Ryan Garcia. “There’s definitely a lot of talent out there at 135, 140, a lot of fighters to pick & choose from.
“What’s interesting is that everybody wants to fight Ryan. With a world title or without a world title, they want to fight him because he’s a superstar, and he’s a superstar in the making,” Oscar continued.
“Everybody knows that if you fight Ryan, you have a chance to elevate your status, and that’s a very unique position to be in. I think Ryan right now is in the perfect moment. He can call his own shots, but he’s very ambitious, he wants to fight everybody,” said De La Hoya.
Ryan’s tremendous popularity puts him on the same level as a world champion, and that means he can pick & choose whoever he wants to fight.
If Tank Davis wasn’t isolated the way he’s been all these years, fighting only PBC & Mayweather Promotions fighters, Ryan probably would have fought him by now.
“I think it’s a matter of time, it’s just a matter of time,” said De La Hoya about Ryan’s future. “We have to plan out very carefully the plan of attack of what’s the next step for him after this fight if everything goes well on April 9th,” said De La Hoya about King Ry’s April 9th return fight against Emmanuel Tagoe at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
“Sure, why not?” said De La Hoya when asked if Tank Davis could be next for Ryan Garcia, now that he’s finishing the last fight of his contract with Mayweather Promotions on May 28th against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero.
“From one promoter to another, give me a call and we can make something happen, why not? Ryan wants that fight [Tank Davis], it’ll be a big fight, and I think the time is now.
“First thing is first, April 9th, if everything goes well, I hope I get those calls from all the promoters so we can make something happen,” said De La Hoya on his hopes for a big fight for Ryan after he takes care of business against Tagoe.
