Bernard Hopkins has criticised Ryan Garcia’s handling of his loss to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
The 24-year-old was finished with a body shot in the seventh round of his catchweight bout with Davis – a huge financial success but the first defeat of his professional career.
There has been plenty of talk on whether or not Garcia had the ability to fight on but chose not to, and some comparisons have been made to his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, losing in a similar way.
De La Hoya was dropped by Hopkins – whom he now partners with as Golden Boy Promotions – in the ninth round of their middleweight championship bout. The liver shot saw De La Hoya in extreme pain on the canvas and unable to continue.
Speaking on The Spit Bucket Podcast about any comparisons to his finish of De La Hoya and ‘Tank’s finish of Garcia, Hopkins focused on how each fighter dealt with defeat instead.
“The question is two-sided when it comes to Ryan didn’t get up, Oscar didn’t get up, they was both body shots. That ain’t the debate.
The blame game, and responsibility, and ownership, that’s the man versus the boy. Hold up. That’s the man in Oscar and that’s the boy in Ryan. The boy and the man.
We ain’t talking about hair on your you-know-what. We talking about how do you handle a situation of this magnitude as a man, or as a whining boy, blaming everybody that you can blame.”
Garcia has said in the wake of the fight that he didn’t feel wholly supported by his team, which includes both De La Hoya and Hopkins, and seemed particularly frustrated at neither of them turning up to the post-fight press conference.
He responded to these more recent remarks by saying he made no excuses for the loss, and expressed surprise at the dispute the three have found themselves in.
I don’t remember ever making a excuse for my loss.
I just said that parts of my team showed they didn’t have loyalty, that has nothing to do with a fight, only with integrity.
Bhop trying to help Oscar. I never seen an attack on someone’s own fighter by a promoter ever.
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) July 5, 2023
It appears Garcia’s relationship with his promotional company is at an all time low, as evidenced by the fact that legal letters and lawsuits are now also involved.
As far as his fight plans, he’s plotting an official move up to 140lbs under new coach, Derrick James.