By: Sean Crose
Hall of Fame fighter turned top promoter Oscar De La Hoya surprised some people on Wednesday when he posted on social medial that it’s “Looking like @RyanGarcia vs Jose Ramirez is getting close and happening.” Garcia’s next opponent had been up in the air, as the choice seemed to be changing between Devin Haney and Rolando Romero in recent weeks. Ramirez seemed like he might be an obvious choice, however, as he had recently joined with Golden Boy Promotions, which meant De La Hoya was promoting both his and Garcia’s careers. On Thursday, however, Garcia outright contradicted De La Hoya on social media.
“No Ramirez,” the 25 year old Californian posted on X/Twitter, “Let’s make that clear.” Garcia then went on to suggest that he might be battling De La Hoya in some from or other in the near future. “Ryan Garcia vs Oscar De La Hoya at this point,” Garcia posted. The truth is that Garcia and De La Hoya have been at odds regularly for quite some time. Communication between the two men is arguably faulty, as their promotional drama is often aired in public. Still, Garcia remains one of the most popular fighters in the sport, which means even back and forth between himself and De La Hoya becomes news.
With it being suggested that both Haney and Ramiro asked for too much money in order to fight Garcia, it will be interesting to see where matters go from here. While Garcia is an exciting fighter with a thunderous punch, he was brought down to earth last year when Gervonta Davis stopped him within the distance in a legitimate superfight. With that being said, Garcia is arguably young enough to keep developing as a fighter. He may not have won a world title as of yet, but the man known as “King Ry” still has an impressive 24-1 resume.
Worth noting is the fact that De La Hoya himself seemed to be taking matters good naturedly on Thursday. “@RyanGarcia just please do not hit me in my abs,” he joked X/Twitter. “I just got them done.” Perhaps regular conflicts are just part of the nature of this odd promoter/fighter relationship. No matter which way one may look at it, however, both Ryan Garcia and Oscar De La Hoya have made each other a lot of whole lot of money – and will likely earn each other a whole lot more in the future.
