Ryan Garcia signed a contract with Golden Boy Promotions when he was 17 years old back in 2016. However, after six long years of a great partnership, things seem to have turned sour between Garcia and his promoter Oscar De La Hoya. As a result, we might see the lightweight superstar part ways with Golden Boy and look for new options.
Last week the American-Mexican boxer’s legal team sent a notice to Golden Boy alleging violations of the promotion’s agreement, that invalidates the existing contract. According to the statement provided to ESPN, Ryan’s attorney Bo Pearl stated that “Golden Boy is obligated to promote and enhance Ryan Garcia, not malign him on Twitter and file a public, baseless lawsuit against him.”
What incident happened between Ryan Garcia and Oscar De La Hoya?
Everything seem to be good between Ryan Garcia and Oscar De La Hoya until the dawn of the Gervonta Davis boxing bout that took place in April this year. De La Hoya and Golden Boy were present for the pre-fight press conference and weigh-ins of the Davis vs Garcia fight. But surprisingly, Oscar was not to be seen anywhere after Ryan suffered a brutal stoppage loss to Tank.
Subsequently, Ryan looked upset as there was no one to support him apart from Tank’s team. De La Hoya received a lot of criticism from fans for abandoning Ryan Garcia and missing the post-fight press conference. A few days later, Oscar explained the reason why he and Bernard Hopkins left the fight early,
“I do want to clarify why Bernard Hopkins and I weren’t at the post-fight press conference. Gervonta’s promoter banned him(Bernard Hopkins) from everything. He couldn’t get inside the ring. He couldn’t do anything during the promotion.”
“As for myself, my security team told me, ’Boss, we’ve got to get the f**k out of here.’ Because I received death threats. You guys don’t know this, I received death threats throughout the whole week, and they just said it was simply too dangerous so we got out of there,” he added.
Despite the clarification, Garcia seemed unhappy with the whole situation. Consequently, a few weeks ago he expressed his disappointment with his promoter and the Golden Boy promotion on Twitter. Surprisingly, Oscar hit back at Garcia and this led to a nasty exchange of words between the boxer and promoter.
Oscar De La Hoya and Ryan Garcia exchanged words on Twitter 👀 pic.twitter.com/BXV5hc0lgJ
— ESPN Ringside (@ESPNRingside) June 2, 2023
Oscar De La Hoya’s recent statements on Twitter were probably the major reasons behind Ryan Garcia’s legal team filing a case on the promotion. Besides, The 24-year-old lightweight superstar was unhappy with how his promoter Oscar was handling things.
Why did Golden Boy Promotions file a lawsuit against Ryan Garcia?
The relationship between Ryan Garcia and Oscar De Laya is in chaos after their social media back and forth. To make matters worse, the lightweight superstar sent a legal notice to Golden Boy Promotions, and this move makes it apparent that he wants out. However, Oscar De La Hoya has hit back with a lawsuit of their own against Ryan and his attorney and advisor Lupe Valencia.
Golden Boy Promotion wants the 24-year-old boxer to enforce their “valid promotional agreement.” The promotion explained the reason behind filing the lawsuit to ESPN in a statement,
“With this filing, we are seeking to ensure that Ryan and his team will honor the remainder of his contract, a contract that Ryan himself called ‘one of the most lucrative boxing deals for a prospect in the history of the sport.’
It is needless to say that things are complicated between Ryan Garcia and Oscar De La Hoya. One thing seems quite clear, Golden Boy doesn’t have any intention of allowing Garcia to leave without fulfilling his contract, as he is one of the biggest superstars in boxing and they want to completely capitalize on his star power.
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