By Jake Donovan
Another day, another tweet signaling disarray in the Golden Boy Promotions house.
Unbeaten lightweight prospect Ryan Garcia is the latest to come out swinging against the Los Angeles-based promotional outfit. The soon-to-be 21-year old boxer followed in the footsteps of his training stablemate and mentor, World middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez who kicked of the weekend with a revealing post regarding Golden Boy’s handling of his negotiations with mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
The wildly popular Mexican icon expressed displeasure and embarrassment on behalf of his fans in his being stripped of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight title, vowing to come back stronger. His revealing outburst was met with indirect but certainly relating responses from Golden Boy founder and chairman Oscar de la Hoya as well as Eric Gomez, GBP vice president, both of whom were quick to defend the company brand and in particular, executive matchmaker Roberto Diaz who took the lead in negotiations for Alvarez’s ordered mandatory defense.
Deeper down on the significance scale came a recent outburst from Garcia, who trains with Alvarez under the guise of Eddy Reynoso. The baby-faced Los Angeles-based prospect was due to next fight on Sept. 14 in Las Vegas, but those plans are on hold for an undetermined amount of time.
“To all my fans, yes I was supposed to fight Romero Duno in September,” Garcia (18-0, 15KOs) announced on Twitter over the weekend, referring to a planned crossroads bout versus the Filipino prospect on a Mexican Independence Day-themed card in Las Vegas. “I decided to not go with that because I wanted to fight him as main event in November and not be some co-main event on a card that will be driven by me.”
Garcia’s bout was targeted to land on a show hoped to have been headlined by super welterweight titlist Jaime Munguia in a title defense versus former two-division beltholder Jessie Vargas. As BoxingScene.com reported over the weekend, cold water was poured over those plans the moment negotiations stalled to bring that bout to reality.
The date has since been occupied by Top Rank, whose recently signed heavyweight attraction Tyson Fury will make his second straight Vegas appearance.
Meanwhile, Garcia is stuck on just one fight in 2019—a 2nd round knockout of Jose “Wonder Boy” Lopez this past March in Indio, Calif. Speaking to his point, the young rising talent played to a capacity crowd for the event and has routinely packed the house even at the prospect level in his rise from novice to blue chip prospect.
Aiding his cause is his wildly popular social media presence, boasting more than 3 million followers on Instagram and another 200,000 on Twitter—unheard of numbers for most superstar boxers, never mind those on the rise and still a few fights away from fighting on the contender level.
It adds up to a future star in the Golden Boy stable and perhaps one day the heir apparent to Alvarez in terms of becoming the face of the company.
For now, Garcia—who is also embroiled in a legal battle with estranged manager Roger Ruiz—has made it abundantly clear where his loyalties lie, taking his new mentor’s lead in attempting to call his own shots.
“I also elected to fight the guy that gave Duno problems (Juan Antonio Rodriguez, who dropped a close decision to Duno in May) for September,” noted Garcia in clearly disapproving the suggested opponent choice, along with it serving as a supporting bout.
“The bottom line is I deserve the right promotion for fights with the full time to promote and not be thrown into a fight and have myself do the whole promotion. Knowing my fan base, they will tune in no matter what but I deserve to have a full promotion fight with Duno!”
Golden Boy representatives did not respond to inquiries from BoxingScene.com seeking comment. On the bright side, they also didn’t take to social media to plead their case this round, perhaps cause for optimism that things will get better before they grow any worse.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox