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Ryan Garcia had a viral ringside exchange with Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe following Gervonta Davis’ knockout win against Rolando Romero at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Garcia has been pressing for a fight with Davis over the last two years. Ellerbe has been adamant that he tried to make a Davis vs. Garcia fight on two separate occasions.
In the back and forth banter, the gregarious Garcia proclaimed that he would make the fight happen, going as far as saying, “f— Golden Boy” several times.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, Garcia (22-0, 18 KOs) doubled down on his stance.
“Golden Boy will not be able to [prevent it],” Garcia said. “They can’t. I will not allow it. There’s no way. I will go to war to fight Tank. I’m ready to do whatever I got to do, because at the end of the day that fight is going to get me my respect, and I think I deserve that. So I’m up for the challenge. I’m very confident in beating him. He’s a great fighter, don’t get me wrong. But I’m just that much greater. And I want to show him, I want to show everybody what I could do, and that that’s the fight to make. Everybody wants to see it, and I’m ready now.
“If you really want to show who ducked who, and you’re really confident that I’m ducking, well then, we could record the entire negotiations. If you want to throw that in, I’m down to throw that in. I have never ducked anybody.”
With a victory, Garcia believes either he or Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) would become boxing’s next flagbearer.
“Over Canelo [Alvarez], over everybody,” said Garcia. “I swear. I promise you. That’s just what it’s going to be. It’s too monumental.”
One major hurdle a Garcia and Davis fight would have to overcome is identifying the network that would carry the fight. Garcia and Golden Boy are tied to DAZN, while Davis is currently tied to Mayweather Promotions and Al Haymon’s PBC, and its preferred home with Showtime, the network that has carried Davis’ last four pay-per-view fights.
Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza maintained his stance throughout the week that he’s hard-pressed to imagine a potential pact with DAZN, despite DAZN executive vice president Joe Markowski telling Mannix that DAZN was “very willing” to do a joint production with Showtime.
“Candidly, I don’t know what DAZN brings to the table, to be completely honest,” said Espinoza. “I understand what UFC brought to the table in [Floyd] Mayweather-[Conor] McGregor. I understand what HBO brought to the table in Mayweather-[Manny]Pacquiao. I don’t understand what DAZN brings to the table. It’s not a big enough fight to split up five different ways.”
The Golden Boy-promoted Jaime Munguia and WBC middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo, who is tied to PBC, both struck out on a potential fight after Golden Boy and Munguia co-promoter Zanfer pushed for DAZN in March to be involved with the potential Showtime pay-per-view.
Garcia is confident he can circumvent broadcast barriers that have increasingly prohibited for palatable fights to be staged for over a decade.
The 23-year-old also wants to earn his due credit.
“I’ve had to deal with a lot of just disrespect toward me as a fighter,” said Garcia. “And even though I’ve put in the work, been boxing since I was seven years old, been getting hit in the head since I was a little boy. Going traveling everywhere, going with my parents everywhere, sacrificing my childhood, everything I had to do. I paid those dues. I just did it in a smart marketing way. That’s just what it is. I’m smart. And honestly, now that I look at it, I think it’s just because I’m handsome. Honestly, I think they’re envious. And I think they just hate me. It’s kind of cocky to say, but f— it. It’s true. I’m handsome and they hate it.”
Garcia is next scheduled to face Javier Fortuna on July 16 in Los Angeles at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on DAZN.
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com.