Oscar De La Hoya hasn’t spoken to his star man, Ryan Garcia, since the loss to Gervonta Davis, but has offered some harsh advice publicly.
The fighter-turned-promoter’s revelations come not long after Garcia confirmed he had split from coach Joe Goossen in the wake of the defeat. Much was made at the time about neither De La Hoya or Goossen being by Garcia’s side at the post-fight press conference.
He suffered a knockdown in the second round before boxing tentatively until the seventh. It was then ‘Tank’ Davis produced a short shot to the ribs that saw Garcia step back and take a knee. He watched on as the referee counted him out and declared Davis this winner. He was later overhead discussing a potential existing rib injury with Goossen.
De La Hoya told Fight Hub TV that he ‘hasn’t spoken to’ Garcia, but publicised what he feels went wrong.
“Ryan Garcia has to rearrange his team, his inner circle and take it from there and take boxing seriously and train harder and train smarter and have an actual training camp up in the mountains where you’re focused where you have tunnel vision, that’s my opinion.”
The promoter said that he would have never accepted the 136lb catchweight if he was negotiations the fight on ‘his terms’ and that he does believe the theory that ‘Tank’s team had a ‘mole’ in Garcia’s camp.
As for their relationship going forward, De La Hoya believes Garcia is still on the rise with Golden Boy Promotions.
“Obviously, me and Ryan have something great going, and we have something amazing going with his career, and he’s on the rise, even though he lost. There are a lot of people out there who are trying to create a wedge.”
“I understand it, but look, Golden Boy is here to stay. We’re going to keep promoting for 50 more years, and that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life. Fighters are going to be with us or not.”
How the 24-year-old will take these comments and criticisms made in public rather than private is yet to be seen.