Ryan Garcia’s feud with Golden Boy spills into fight week promotion

Ryan Garcia wouldn't have lost to Gervonta Davis in their much-hyped bout in April if he hadn't called Davis out and pushed hard to make the match happen. As it stands, that bout is the biggest of the year in terms of pay-per-view numbers, with over 1.2 million sales.

It was far from Garcia's best performance. He was stopped in the seventh round by a Davis body shot, and he was never threatening much during the fight.

It was Garcia, though, who made that event happen by calling for it. It wasn't a fight that was on anyone's radar, and no one of significance had asked for it. But Garcia called out Davis, one of the sport's top pound-for-pound fighters after a 2022 win over Javier Fortuna.

And then, Garcia insisted it happen despite attempts to go in a different direction, and it was finally made for April 22 in Las Vegas.

Maybe it was too early in Garcia's career for a fight of such significance. Maybe he hadn't done enough to ready himself for such a significant challenge after taking a year off of boxing to address mental health concerns. Maybe he's never going to be good enough to defeat a guy of Davis' caliber.

Maybe. We don't know.

But the fact that he sought the fight deserves all sorts of kudos. It's what Oscar De La Hoya, one of his promoters, did routinely during his legendary career. There are a lot of less-than-flattering things one could say about De La Hoya, but anyone who implies he ducked fighters and/or didn't seek out the greatest challenges is a liar, a fool or perhaps both.

De La Hoya's willingness to fight anyone is one of the reasons he was such a beloved fighter.

As a young boy, Garcia looked up to De La Hoya, so it shouldn't have come as much of a surprise when he emulated his one-time idol and made a challenging call-out.

Garcia will return to the ring Saturday when he meets Oscar Duarte in a super lightweight bout at The Toyota Center in Houston in a match that should answer a lot of questions about him.

Garcia is a healthy -450 favorite over Duarte, who despite a 26-1-1 record and 21 knockouts is +320 at BetMGM. Those odds suggest that this is a fight Garcia should win handily. At -450, it suggests an implied win probability of 81.82% for Garcia, who is 23-1 with 19 knockouts.

One has to wonder, though, how he'll perform as it seems he's battling his promoters, particularly legendary former champion Bernard Hopkins, as the fight nears. In October during an interview with FightHype, Hopkins was asked if Garcia should fight the winner of the Dec. 9 WBC super lightweight title fight between Regis Prograis and Devin Haney. Hopkins, quite properly, said Garcia should be most concerned with beating Duarte.

If he left it there, no problem. Hopkins, though, continued and made a statement that irritated Garcia.

"I will see how he looks in this fight [against Duarte] to make my personal decision whether he should fight again," Hopkins said.

Hopkins was one of the great fighters of his era, and battled the system along the way. He made it all the way to the Hall of Fame, compiling a 55-8-2 record with 32 knockouts and two no contests. He won titles at middleweight, where he was the undisputed champion, and at light heavyweight. He became the oldest man in boxing history to win a world title bout.

Hopkins' comment about deciding whether Garcia should fight again was odd, particularly given he is Garcia's promoter and that Garcia's only loss was to one of the elite fighters in the world.

Yes, Garcia needs to be properly prepared to face Duarte. Yes, he didn't look great against Davis. But for Hopkins to say he'd make a decision on whether Garcia should ever fight again more than a month out from the fight seemed strange.