Oscar De La Hoya has taken aim at Floyd Mayweather, accusing Mayweather of having the ear of Ryan Garcia and changing the best-laid plans of both Golden Boy Promotions and Garcia for 2024.
Garcia, 24-1 (20KOs), was recently in Las Vegas and spent time with Mayweather, which included time at the Mayweather Gym and being filmed running alongside Mayweather while in conversation. In 2023, Garcia fought Gervonta Davis, with whom Mayweather has an active managerial role. Davis, 29-0, 27KOs, dropped and stopped Garcia in seven rounds at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Garcia returned in December against Oscar Duarte Jurado (26-2-1, 21KOs), winning in eight rounds with a dominant performance up at 140lbs.
Following the victory, Garcia targeted a world title opportunity as his main objective for 2024 and called for a WBC title fight with Devin Haney (31-0, 15KOs) following the latter’s comprehensive December 9 victory over Regis Prograis. Garcia instructed his promoter, De La Hoya, to begin negotiations with Haney.
However, after his visit to see Mayweather, Garcia’s ambitions changed and he then said he wanted to face Mayweather Promotions’s fighter Rolando Romero (15-1, 13KOs), the current WBA super-lightweight champion, instead of Haney. The switch took De La Hoya by surprise and he fired off an outburst on Instagram.
“Pre-run with Floyd = Ryan wants Haney. Post-run with Floyd = Ryan wants Rolly,” wrote De La Hoya. “Golden Boy has worked with Ryan Garcia since he turned pro and together, have made him the biggest draw in boxing. We will make his fight with Rolly into a huge event as we always do.”
The De La Hoya-Garcia relationship became particularly strained in 2023, with Garcia accusing De La Hoya of abandoning him following his defeat to Davis. De La Hoya explained his absence from the post-fight proceedings due to an apparent death threat. De La Hoya would also question the status of Garcia’s mental health during fight week of Garcia’s return against Duarte while making animated facial expressions as Garcia took to the microphone at the final press conference, in which Garcia expressed his concerns about his future and working relationship with De La Hoya.
Despite the issues, De La Hoya warned old foe Mayweather that he (De La Hoya) is Garcia’s promoter.
“Floyd, if you want to give Ryan the secret to defence in the ring, that’s great,” De La Hoya continued. “Other than that, if you are still a promoter like it says here, fuck off.”
