By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya, the promoter for Ryan Garcia, says he’s not yet received a contract for the Gervonta Davis fight, and he’s now set a deadline for this Monday, or he’s “moving on” in another direction for Kingry’s next fight. The deal was supposedly done, but without a contract, it wasn’t.
You can’t blame De La Hoya for being upset and setting a deadline because how can Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs) and Golden Boy Promotions put full effort into getting ready for the ‘Tank’ Davis fight if they haven’t received the contract and they’re not 100% sure the match will take place or if they’ll agree what’s in the contract.
De La Hoya isn’t saying who his backup plan is for Ryan Garcia to fight if the Gervonta Davis fight doesn’t happen, but he’ll have plenty of options, both at 135 &140. Ryan’s popularity is as such that he has endless options.
Plan B options for Ryan Garcia
- Frank Martin
- George Kambosos Jr
- Isaac Cruz
- Teofimo Lopez
- Regis Prograis
The big question is, why hasn’t Gervonta’s management at PBC already sent the contract for the Ryan Garcia fight to Golden Boy? Were they hoping to drag it out, send it at the last minute, and hope they’ll still sign it, even if they don’t agree with many of the stipulations? In other words, were they hoping Ryan would bend due to how much huge interest the fight has generated by that point?
I have no contract, deadline for me is Monday or I’m moving on. #DavisGarcia
— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) January 15, 2023
You can only imagine the pressure on Ryan to sign the contract if it’s sent within a month or a week of the fight with Tank. Fans would be super excited for the fight, making it almost impossible for Ryan & Golden Boy not to agree to things in the contract that they usually wouldn’t have if it had been sent much earlier.
Gervonta vs. Ryan is a big fight, to be sure, but it’s not going to be in Kingry or Golden Boy’s interest to be sent a contract at the last minute that they’re not happy with.
You got to assume that the contract from Gervonta’s management t PBC won’t be sent by Monday’s deadline set by De La Hoya. As such, it’ll be interesting to see if De La Hoya is a man of his word and moves on or if Ryan overrides him, which is quite possible, undermining himself in the process.
Ryan needs to step back and let Golden Boy make the decisions on this thing because it will work against him if he sticks it out and De La Hoya doesn’t receive the contract until the week of the fight in April, and it’s filled with stuff that Kingry and Oscar aren’t happy with.