By Adam Baskin: Ryan Garcia came out of the woodwork today in response to Bernard Hopkins labeling him as a “whining boy” with the way he reacted to his promoter Oscar De La Hoya being present at the post-fight press conference after his knockout loss to Gervonta Davis last April in Las Vegas.
Although Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez was on hand at Ryan’s post-fight press conference, he wanted De La Hoya there.
Hopkins doesn’t like how the 24-year-old Ryan (23-1, 19 KOs) isn’t taking responsibility for his seventh round knockout loss to Tank Davis and lashing out at Oscar instead of owning his defeat.
Hopkins compares how De La Hoya dealt with a similar body shot ninth round stoppage loss against him in 2004. De La Hoya took the loss stoically without complaints, accepting it.
De La Hoya had a vastly different background than Ryan Garcia, having an Olympic gold medal in 1992 and captured six division world titles.
In contrast, Ryan didn’t have the same glittering amateur background as Oscar, and he’s not won any world titles yet, and it’s questionable whether he ever will.
“The responsibility and ownership, that’s the man in October, and that’s the boy in Ryan. We’re talking about how you handle a situation of this magnitude as a man or as a whining boy, blaming everybody you can blame,” said Bernard Hopkins to the Spit Bucket podcast, talking about Ryan Garcia.
Boxing fans are divided between who they feel is at blame for this. While some are upset with De La Hoya for not being at Ryan’s post-fight press conference, others don’t like how he’s reacted to it.
“I don’t remember ever making an excuse for my loss,” said Ryan Garcia on Twitter, reacting to Hopkins saying he’s blaming others for his loss to Gervonta Davis. “I just said parts of my team showed they didn’t have loyalty.
“That has nothing to do with a fight, only with integrity. Hhop trying to help Oscar [De La Hoya]. I never seen an attack on someone’s own fighter by a promoter ever,” said Ryan.
De La Hoya had reportedly wanted Ryan to take a tune-up against Mercito Gesta before facing Tank, which he chose not to do.
It’s believed that De La Hoya wasn’t in favor of the deal that Ryan agreed to for the fight with Gervonta, giving the Baltimore native two weight stipulations with a catchweight & a 10-rehydration. Whatever slight chance Ryan had of winning the fight, he threw it out the window by agreeing to the weight stipulations.
The question is, was Ryan Garcia failing to listen to his promoter De La Hoya? If so, one could understand why De La Hoya might have chosen not to be present at Ryan’ss post-fight press conference. If Ryan wasn’t listening to De La Hoya, who has been around the game a lot longer than him, you could understand why he might have blown off the post-fight press conference.
All that work and money De La Hoya put into building Ryan into a star, and he hamstrung himself by rushing into the Tank fight, not getting more experience first, not taking a tune-up, and agreeing to the strength-training weight stipulations. Tank gamed Ryan.
