Oscar De La Hoya says there are no talks for Ryan Garcia and Manny Pacquiao
Toward the end of January, rumors of a puzzling prizefight began lighting up boxing forums. Apparently, Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KO’s) was looking to stage a fight with Ryan “KingRy” Garcia (21-0, 18 KO’s). This theoretical bout was odd for many reasons. To begin, the lightweight KingRy would have to leap two weight classes to welterweight to make the showdown a reality. Also, while there is no denying his marketability, Garcia just fought his first step-up fight. Even then, against Luke Campbell, while he did show heart KingRy got dropped hard in that fight.
So why would Pac Man pick this anomalous opponent when he has so many lush options at welterweight? Outside of the high numbers that they could potentially hustle up there is little other logic. No offense to Garcia, but he is alarmingly green to the big stage. For this reason, there is no true glory for Pacquiao to garner by stopping him. This is especially true since the young media sensation had to come up two divisions. In the end however, perhaps it was all illusions and parlor tricks from the very beginning.
ZERO TALKS, ZERO MOVEMENT
Even after the hypothetical bout was revealed to the public, it became even more nonsensical. Instead of being a legitimate prizefight it was said to be an exhibition. Obviously, this was far less attractive than the already bland original contest. In response to the negative reaction by the boxing public, Ryan Garcia quickly spoke out. The Californian let it be known that the fight being negotiated was a standard professional boxing match. Now however, his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions, is saying there are no on-going talks. In fact, in a brief interview with Fight Hub TV, De La Hoya said there never were any talks to speak of.
“No, no we haven’t talked to anybody yet. We are trying to pin down one of Manny’s people who calls the shots, who makes the decisions and we haven’t had any success. It’s all just Instagram, that’s all. Zero.”
CONTRADICTING STORIES
With this latest entry, one must wonder what has Garcia been talking about all this time? Was he being fed fraudulent information or just lying flat out, or is De La Hoya being disingenuous? And if he the former fighter-turned-promoter is on the level, why wait so long to clear the air? Only time will tell how this whole oddball situation resolves itself. Yet, it certainly does not sound like the smart money is on a Pacquiao versus Garcia fight taking place!
By: Bakari Simpson
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