Ryan Garcia welcomed “the holy spirit” into his press conference Thursday afternoon in Houston, but he was a lot less hospitable toward “The Executioner.”

Garcia belittled Bernard Hopkins when it was the perturbed, popular fighter’s turn to speak because Oscar De La Hoya’s promotional partner aggravated Garcia with comments he made recently to Fight Hub TV. Among other things, Hopkins stated that Golden Boy Promotions is “not in the business of kissing [a] fighter’s ass.”

The 25-year-old Garcia, who has long been at odds with his promotional team, seemed to take particular exception to Hopkins indicating that he’ll have a say in when Garcia will stop fighting after he opposes Oscar Duarte on Saturday night at Toyota Center in Houston.

“Man, a couple things I wanna touch,” Garcia said. “You know, one thing that’s been on my heart is the statements that Bernard made, where he’ll decide if I’m gonna finish or if I should continue boxing after this fight. He don’t decide that. My coach does, my team does, everybody that, you know, grinds wit’ me day in and day out, that’s who decides, and ultimately God decides. Not him. Nobody was telling him when to stop boxing. You know, he stopped boxing at what, 45? So, kudos to him. But he don’t determine that.”

The 58-year-old Hopkins, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in June 2022, actually fought until he was 51. The former middleweight and light heavyweight champion didn’t retire until underdog Joe Smith Jr., who was 24 years younger than Hopkins, knocked him out of the ring in the eighth round of their December 2016 fight at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

Garcia concluded his press conference Thursday by taking another shot at Hopkins.

The junior welterweight contender noted that Hopkins infamously promised that he would never be beaten by a white fighter before his light heavyweight bout against Joe Calzaghe, who defeated Hopkins by split decision in April 2008 at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center. Philadelphia’s Hopkins fought for 8½ more years before Smith emphatically ended his career.

Wales’ Calzaghe and Long Island’s Smith are both white, though Hopkins later told the Philadelphia Daily News’ Bernard Fernandez that mentioning Calzaghe’s skin color was simply a promotional ploy to generate interest in their pay-per-view fight.

“And, you know, he also said that, you know, he calls out on the bullsh!t, the lies,” Garcia said. “Man, last time I checked he said he’ll never lose to a white boy and then Joe Smith Jr. knocked him out of the ring. Last time I checked Joe Smith Jr. was white. So, you know, they be lying. So, at the end of the day, you know, I come to show what I bring and I’m laser focused. And that’s where this confidence comes from.”

Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) also claimed Thursday that his promoters want him to lose to Mexico’s Duarte (26-1-1, 21 KOs), who is also represented by Golden Boy.

Garcia, of Victorville, California, is a 4-1 favorite to defeat Duarte in a 12-round main event DAZN will stream from the home arena of the NBA’s Houston Rockets (8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT). He’ll fight for the first time since Gervonta Davis dropped him twice and knocked him out with a body shot during the seventh round of their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event April 22 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.