Ryan Garcia and Oscar De La Hoya at odds once again

Ryan Garcia has had his problems with Golden Boy Promotions before, and it looks like they’re officially back again.

The 21-year-old Garcia (20-0, 17 KO) is pretty clearly the brightest young star in Golden Boy’s stable, and probably already the second-biggest star on their roster behind only Canelo Alvarez.

But Garcia and Golden Boy pretty publicly beefed in 2019. While that ended with a lot of smiles and a new contract for Garcia, the problems haven’t fully gone away.

Garcia was due to be in action on July 4 in what was going to serve as Golden Boy’s return to live boxing, but balked at the purse offered to him, which Golden Boy’s Eric Gomez said was the minimum on his current contract. His problems also appear to be with DAZN, the streaming service with whom Golden Boy has a deal at the moment, and for whom Garcia is a key attraction.

Now, promoter Oscar De La Hoya has attempted to basically publicly shame Garcia for not fighting on July 4, and turned his favor to welterweight prospect Vergil Ortiz Jr:

Garcia was quick to hit back, as he is extremely good at social media:

Edit: Garcia deleted his reply, but it did happen:

Garcia seems intent on maximizing his value — whether you think he’s already overpaid or whatever is your opinion, but it’s clearly not his — and that’s historically not been a particularly easy thing for promoters to deal with, or at least something they prefer to avoid. There was even once a fighter, can’t remember, who split off from his longtime, established promoter to start his own company. Nickname was “Golden” something or other.

(Obviously De La Hoya had far more firmly established himself as a top fighter than Garcia has thus far, but it’s a different time, too, and there are more variables for marketability than before.)

What happens here is anyone’s guess, really, but I just don’t see this ending easily or with the forced smiles from a year ago. For one thing, it’s boiled over again this quickly. For another thing, the entire sport’s a fragile mess at the moment.