De La Hoya Says Ryan Garcia is Holding Up Lopez Fight Talks
In his last prizefight, “King” Ryan Garcia (23-1, 19 KO’s) suffered the first defeat of his career. Following the seventh round stoppage loss to Regular WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis, Garcia immediately moved to super lightweight. Luckily for Garcia, his tremendous fame and name value have retained him as an opponent of great demand. In fact, let his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions, tell it, Garcia could presently be neck deep in negotiations with WBO 140-pound champion Teofimo Lopez (19-1, 13 KO’s).
“The father called me, which is Teofimo Lopez Sr. called me, and was like, ‘oh man, we have to make a fight!’ It’s a great fight! I’m just waiting for Ryan Garcia’s team to get a hold of me and or Eric [Gomez, Golden Boy President] to start talking and start putting a deal together. And depending on what route they want to go, so we are just waiting.”
“Because I am the promoter, on paper I am the promoter, and we have to make it happen! We have to make it happen the right way, the correct way, contractually. People think, ‘oh you sued him,’ but I sued him just so he would honor his contract; That’s all we want.”
CAN’T WE ALL GET ALONG?!
It’s no secret that King Ryan and De La Hoya have had a turbulent relationship. A couple years back, Garcia made his displeasure and feelings that he was being undervalued a public matter. More recently, Garcia felt as if he was left hanging by Golden Boy Promotions as a company following the loss to Davis. In the latest turn of events, Golden Boy actually sued King Ryan to force him to honor his contract.
So instead of negotiating another significant fight and substantial payday against Team Lopez, Garcia and Golden Boy are in a tense standstill. Instead of working with his promoter, one can only assume King Ryan and his team are looking for a way out of this contract. Only time will tell, but it’d be a much better day to reveal that the Garcia and Lopez’s camps were in heated talks. Instead, we only have it confirmed that the rift between Ryan Garcia and Oscar De La Hoya is as strong as ever.
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