Oscar De La Hoya: Ryan Garcia is still a star

Golden Boy Promotions founder and figurehead, Oscar De La Hoya may have been in Arlington, Texas on Saturday for his fighter William Zepeda’s crushing victory over Jaime Arboleda, but he was still bombarded with questions regarding the big fight a week prior in Las Vegas.

One week removed from Ryan Garcia’s seventh round KO loss to Gervonta Davis and the revelation of it’s massive commercial success, De La Hoya fielded questions from the media and spared no efforts in tooting his own horn.

“Once you’re part of a big PPV, especially one million plus (buys), and you help carry it– and Gervonta won, he’s a great fighter. I’ve always respected him, he’s one of my favorite fights, he’s a helluva fighter,” Oscar told Fighthype.com. “But Ryan’s still Ryan. He had a good performance leading up to it, got hit by a body shot. I got hit by a body shot as well by my partner, Bernard.

“Look, it’s boxing. It is what it is. But Ryan Garcia’s still an attraction. He’s still a star, so there’s nothing lost there. I think Gervonta’s going to go up to the stars and Ryan Garcia as well. So now we have two stars, which is great for boxing.

“That’s the beauty of having a promoter who knows what he’s doing. We’re gonna sit down with him, a week, 10 days, whatever he wants, whatever it takes for him to relax the head, the mind, the soul, and then I’ll have a perfect game plan for him to come back.

“…I’m right here because there’s no promoter in the world who has laced up the gloves the way I have. So I know exactly what fighters want, what fighters need, how to guide their careers.

“Look, I’ve promoted 15 of Mayweather’s fights for a reason. I promoted Canelo and made him a star, I promoted Ryan and made him a star. We promote all these fighters like Vergil Ortiz, who’s gonna be a star, like Jaime Munguia, who’s gonna be a star. It takes a fighter to know a fighter, so that’s why I say Golden Boy is the best promoter in the world.

“A rematch won’t take place anytime soon. I believe that both fighters will each take their own path but eventually meet down the road. That’s the beauty of boxing. Gervonta Davis can easily go up — I believe he’s already fought at 140 already, so it would be nice maybe to see him up there at 140 down the line. Let him enjoy his victory, let him get a few more wins, fight more world champions. And believe me, when they do it again — if they decide to do it again — that fight can do four million homes easy.”

According to The Sports Business Journal, Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia generated more than 1.2 million PPV buys and delivered a live gate revenue of about $22.8 million from the sold out T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The live gate revenue makes Davis-Garcia the fifth highest live gate total in Nevada combat sports history. The pay-per-view buy rate also makes the show the most lucrative boxing pay-per-view event since Saul Alvarez vs. Gennadiy Golovkin I back in September of 2017. The fight, which saw Davis stop Garcia in the seventh round with a crushing body shot, is expected to generate approximately $102 million from pay-per-view sales, alone.