Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoyas confirmed that Ryan Garcia will be challenging WBC light welterweight champion Devin Haney as previously planned for April 20th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
De La Hoya won’t be pulling Ryan from the fight, and he says he spoke with him yesterday on FaceTime. Oscar says, “He looks good; he looks ready.” That comment is predictable by De La Hoya, but it won’t work if Ryan isn’t cogent and continues to act like he belongs in an asylum.
There’s something clearly wrong with him, and he doesn’t appear to be ready to take on a phenom like Haney.
DAZN’s Delicate Balance
It’s understandable that Oscar doesn’t want to pull Ryan from the card, considering they’ll be losing a lot of money. De La Hoya’s potential replacement, Arnold Barboza Jr., lacks the popularity for a fight between him and Haney to be successful on DAZN PPV.
Haney-Barboza Jr. has got PPV disaster written all over it, and it would be a massive mistake for that fight to go through. If Ryan is pulled from the card, the choices will be to use Barboza Jr. as the substitute and watch the April 20th fight date bomb badly or reach outside of Golden Boy for someone like Shakur Stevenson.
If they do that, Devin and his dad, Bill Haney, will likely refuse, knowing that the chances of them losing would be much higher than it would if a mentally unstable and badly flawed Ryan were used.
Whatever De La Hoya says won’t matter if Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) continues to act erratically in the six weeks and two days before the April 20th date with Haney (31-0, 14 KOs) on DAZN.
Ryan must be pulled, and De La Hoya will be forced to remove him. If the 25-year-old Garcia’s erratic behavior continues to overshadow the promotion of the event, DAZN’s top brass will likely speak up and let De La Hoya that something must be done about Ryan.
De La Hoya’s Optimism vs. Garcia’s Uncertainty
“Come April 20th, it’s going to be a blood bath, it literally is,” said Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya to the media, confirming that Ryan Garcia won’t be pulled from his fight against WBC light welterweight champion Devin Haney on DAZN PPV.
“I’ve been in touch with Ryan Garcia. I spoke to him yesterday, and we FaceTimed each other. He looks good; he looks ready. All I know is he left for camp yesterday, and he’s with Derrick James, and he’s with his whole team,” said De La Hoya, giving his response after being told by a media member that Ryan “doesn’t sound good.’
“One thing about Ryan is he’s been training, and there are 6/7 weeks left to be ready for this fight on April 20th. That’s perfect timing; it’s all good. We will see Ryan Garcia up in the ring on April 20th.
