By Brian Webber: Ryan Garcia isn’t necessarily in agreement with his promoter Oscar De La Hoya’s early return to the ring in August after Kingry’s loss to Gervonta Davis last weekend.
Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) states that he’s moving up to 140 after losing to Tank Davis by a seventh round body shot knockout. Ryan says he needs “Time to think about a lot of things,” which some people wonder if that means him being with Golden Boy.
De La Hoya, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, has taken heat from boxing fans for not showing up at the post-fight press conference to stand with Ryan after his defeat.
Oscar says he received death threats, which made it unsafe for him to attend Kingry’s post-fight press conference. However, fans note that he was at ringside for the fight with Gervonta, so they saw it odd that he wasn’t present afterward.
Whether Ryan moves on or stays with De La Hoya, he’s got his work cut out for him moving up to 140.
While Ryan continues to be popular due to his large 10 million followers on Instagram, it’s questionable he’s got the ability to compete against the best fighters at light welterweight. That will be a problem for Ryan, regardless of who promotes him.
A different promoter can only help Ryan by keeping him far away from the dangerous fighters at 140, like Regis Prograis, Subriel Matias, Josh Taylor, and Gary Antuanne Russell.
De La Hoya can do that. Ryan’s career will surely sink if he’s matched against quality opposition at 140, so a new promoter won’t change that. Unfortunately, Ryan wasn’t blessed with De La Hoya’s ‘Golden Boy’ talent inside the ring.
If Ryan could fight like De La Hoya, he would have soundly beaten Gervonta, and he wouldn’t need to be maneuvered around the sharks at 140 to keep him safe and preserve his money-making ability.
They can stand by Ryan’s side at his post-fight press conferences after he loses to those killers, but they can’t give him the missing elite-level ability that just isn’t there and likely never will.
I haven’t talked to anyone regarding how I’m going to move Foward. I’m taking time to think about a lot of things. I wanted to make that VERY CLEAR! https://t.co/95d1MmyogT
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) April 28, 2023
If Ryan Garcia just wants to make money in his career, he can do that by putting together wins over beatable opposition like he’d done until last weekend and then looking for another colossal revenue fight/cash-out opportunity in a year or two.
On the other hand, if Ryan is interested in capturing a world title and building a legacy, he’ll need to face the quality fighters in the 140-lb division and not just avoid them like he’d done at 135 until his fight with Tank Davis.
Some fans believe Ryan’s career-focus until now was getting that bag against Gervonta. Now that he’s got it, it’ll be a rinse & repeat process with more record-padding fights for Kingry against fodder-level opposition until he receives another massive payday.
It would be admirable for the 24-year Garcia to go after the killers at 140 to show that he’s not just after money, but that would go against what he’s done thus far. Ryan wasn’t fighting quality opposition all this time, so why would he suddenly start doing that now?