Oscar De La Hoya has temporarily thrown a wrench into the plans of his biggest star, Ryan Garcia, from switching from facing WBC light welterweight champion Devin Haney next to taking on Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero for his WBA belt.
Oscar’s post on social media suggests that he’s overruling Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) and will attempt to block his move to try and face the PBC-managed, Floyd Mayweather Jr.-promoted Rolly Romero.
De La Hoya posted on Twitter tonight, saying that Ohara Davies, “Golden Boy’s newest and soon-to-be-star,” will be the next opponent to challenge Rolly Romero (15-1, 13 KO) if he wins his contest in the co-feature bout against 40-year-old Ismael Barroso on the undercard of Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Fredrick Lawson.
Ohara is a very beatable fighter and will probably lose to Barroso tonight. So, if De La Hoya is going to block Ryan from fighting Rolly, he’ll need to come up with another reason because Ohara is not the answer.
Ryan Garcia’s Plans Derailed?
If Ryan, 25, were to face Rolly next, it would be a co-network, co-promotional fight shown on Amazon Prime Video and DAZN.
That’s not a good deal for DAZN to share the broadcast between Ryan & Rolly, which is why it’s better for them if Kingry faces Haney next, even though it wouldn’t be good for his career.
While lots of eyes will be on @VergilOrtiz tonight — and they should be — don’t miss the co-main with Golden Boy’s newest soon-to-be star , Ohara Davies. He wins tonight, he gets Rollies for the world title! Vamos, @OharaDavies
— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) January 6, 2024
It’s a win-win for DAZN but a bad deal for Ryan because he’s not ready to fight Haney, especially with him rehydrating to 165 lbs. Ryan isn’t a middleweight, so he would be giving up a ton of size to Haney. Plus, he’s not fighting at a high enough level now to win.
You have to question whether De La Hoya sees the downside of Ryan facing Haney or does not care. If Ryan loses to Haney, it will impact his career and marketability, but if he’s no longer with Golden Boy, it doesn’t matter.
Golden Boy will stay in good with DAZN if Ryan faces Haney, as it would be one network show, but it’s not a great deal for Garcia to take that fight. Haney is not a big seller on PPV, so all the buys would come from Ryan Garcia’s fans. More importantly, Ryan isn’t ready to fight someone as big and skilled as Haney.
He’s trying to develop under his new coach, Derrick James., and he won’t have much of a chance of winning this fight, especially if Devin outweighs him by 15 to 20 lbs on the night. Haney should be fighting at 154 against guys like Tim Tszyu or Terence Crawford rather than melting down to 140 to dominate smaller fighters.
Is this a good move for Ryan to fight Haney? No, it’s a terrible one, as he’s far better off facing Rolly rather than a fighter who rehydrates to 165 and who fights like Shakur Stevenson.
Fans on social media believe that De La Hoya wants the Ryan Garcia vs. Haney fight because it would be a big money fight that Kingry would lose but would do good PPV numbers due to his large social media following, not because of Devin’s, because he has no following. Ryan would lose the fight and be damaged goods for the next promotional company he goes to after he exits Golden Boy.
Ohara Davies in the Spotlight
Davies (25-2, 18 KOs) is an average fighter, and there’s a good chance he’ll lose to Barroso tonight. He could be disappointed if De La Hoya counts on Davies winning this fight.
This is not a great talent, and you can argue that De La Hoya wasted his time signing Davies because he looked embarrassingly bad losing to Josh Taylor in 2017 and Jack Catterall in 2018.
Since then, all of Davies’ wins have come against domestic-level fighters in the UK. He’s arguably not world-class-level, so it’s hard to understand why De La Hoya signed this guy.
