There are a lot of great upcoming bouts coming up on the calendar. Errol Spence and Shawn Porter will go to war for welterweight supremacy. Oleksandr Usyk is debuting at heavyweight, and Canelo will be jumping up two weight classes to take on his biggest (literally) challenge yet in Sergey Kovalev. Despite all this, the most entertaining fight in boxing right now was the “Thrilla On Twitter” between Ryan Garcia and Golden Boy Promotions.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: On 9/18/2019, Ryan Garcia and Golden Boy Promotions patched things up with a five-year contract extension. Looks like money talks!
And, then we got this…
Just because the fight turned out to be draw with both sides “winning,” doesn’t mean there wasn’t a knockdown, drawn-out battle. Here’s a blow-by-blow account of went down before both sides went to their corners.
Golden Boy Promotions is the brainchild of boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya. The company promotes boxing and MMA bouts all over the globe, with names like Canelo Alvarez, Bernard Hopkins and, yes, Ryan Garcia under their banner. Golden Boy has pushed Garcia as the “next big thing” in boxing since 2016. Outside the ring, Garcia is a social media star, who has amassed over 3 million Instagram followers by himself. “KingRy” is a star of the Digital Age, who has developed a rabid fanbase usually reserved for only boxing’s biggest champions. Not bad for a 21-year-old prospect still climbing up the ranks.
Make no mistake. Garcia might be instafamous, but his fights are no Logan Paul vs. KSI. The kid can fight. He compiled an astounding 215-15 record as an amateur, and after six impressive victories to start his professional career, Golden Boy was all too happy to sign him. Currently, Garcia is sitting at a perfect 18-0-0 record and is one of boxing’s most exciting blue-chippers.
What is now obvious is that Golden Boy and Garcia don’t see eye-to-eye on the youngster’s worth inside the ring. With more followers than Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder or Vasyl Lomachenko, Garcia believes he’s already a star, but isn’t treated like one by his promoters, who still see him as a work-in-progress.
This past weekend, the gloves came off, with both parties coming out verbally swinging for the fences after Ryan Garcia’s fight with Avery Sparrow fell through. But it’s not new. Garcia’s relationship with Golden Boy has been on the ropes for a while now.
Last month, Garcia threw the first verbal jab, over social media of course.
The frustrations reportedly stemmed from Garcia’s Jose Lopez fight check. Boxing’s babyfaced Romeo even lawyered up.
Still, Golden Boy and Garcia kept things professional and scheduled a fight between “KingRy” and Philly-born boxer Avery Sparrow.
Things seem to be fine leading up to the fight. Then, Garcia and Golden Boy were caught with a stray haymaker that re-opened old wounds. Avery Sparrow was arrested a day before the fight, headlining a wild weekend of boxing. The US Marshalls reportedly apprehended him while shopping at Target.
After Sparrow’s arrest, Garcia was left without an opponent. Would there be a last-minute replacement? In an interview with “The Athletic,” Golden Boy president Eric Gomez suggested that Garcia was ducking his substitute, Filipino upstart Romero “Ruthless” Duno, who is also a Golden Boy fighter.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Garcia vs. Duno is on! The fight will co-main event the Canelo Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev card on November 2nd. Tickets available here!
No fight was ever made, and Romero Duno knocked out his original opponent, Ivan Delgado. After the fight, he wore a t-shirt with a not-so-subtle message for Garcia, that Golden Boy’s official Twitter account broadcasted.
Garcia didn’t pull any punches responding to Gomez, stringing together an explosive combination of tweets in less than half an hour. (WARNING: language)
UPDATE: On 9/18/2019, after Garcia’s contract extension, the fighter deleted the rant. He left one tweet up, saying “I did my job.”
Since things have been put out there, i will clear all Lies, DONT FUCKING LIE! Get to the table….— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) September 13, 2019 (DELETED)
You can’t make this shit up— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) September 13, 2019 (DELETED)
They really put that shit out there to cover shit hahahahaha— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) September 13, 2019 (DELETED)
I really wish y’all didn’t have to put out fucking lies!!!! Sad asf! Never in my life have i ever said someone is too tough LMAOOO trying to cover there fuck up https://t.co/LCiGj3b10c— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) September 13, 2019 (DELETED)
You’ll do anything to make the blame on me! I had no clue Avery had a warrant! He got arrested! The card in Risk bc i sold and got the viewers, remember when i didn’t have value! Now a bullshit story comes out that I’m scared of duno! Peanuts I’ve been given and guess what…— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) September 13, 2019 (DELETED)
Gomez retracted some of his earlier statements over Twitter.
Garcia continued to counter-punch, claiming that his coach Eddie (Reynoso) never said Duno was too tough.
My coach eddy never said that! https://t.co/97jWkgpq4T— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) September 13, 2019 (DELETED)
How about let’s talk about the fight they just saying random stuff on Twitter https://t.co/97jWkgpq4T— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) September 13, 2019 (DELETED)
On Monday, Oscar De Lay Hoya went 12 rounds on the record with the Los Angeles Times in a piece by columnist Arash Markazi.
In the interview, De La Hoya criticized the cacophony of voices telling Garcia to chase a pay-day and advised his fighter to instead adopt a more Joel Embiid-like approach by “trusting the process.”
He also answered straight off the cuff when asked if “KingRy” was his best young buck. “No. Maybe next to Vergil Ortiz. Vergil Ortiz is the real deal,” De La Hoya told Markazi. “The fact that he has so many followers is great, but it hasn’t transcended over to boxing. It just hasn’t. That’s the bottom line.”
Ryan Garcia was not happy, responding with another flurry of swift-handed tweets, only pausing to retweet Odell Beckham Jr. In one particularly heavy-handed tweet, Garcia gave De La Hoya an explosive ultimatum: believe in me or release me. To make things worse for Golden Boy, their golden goose Canelo Alvarez was in Garcia’s corner, quietly retweeting the tirade in lockstep support of his stablemate.
Oscar if you don’t believe in my talents then you can release me elsewhere. Point blank period! If you do then come talk to me. Please no more press and public bashing.— Ryan Garcia (@KingRyanG) September 17, 2019 (DELETED)
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Looks like Garcia vs. Golden Boy Promotions has a happy ending after all. De La Hoya and Garcia were all smiles as “KingRy” inked a long-term contract with Golden Boy today.
All this drama has us wondering if this was all a marketing tool to drum up even more interest in a young fighter who still has a lot to prove inside the ring. We shall see…
