Ryan Garcia Looks In Great Shape, And Promoter De La Hoya Talks About Fighting Chavez This Year

Golden Boy Promotions put together a media workout for one of their top fighters, Victorville, California's own Ryan “KingRy” Garcia (19-0) at the Westside Boxing Gym in L.A. on Monday afternoon.

The media showed out for the event, bringing in everyone from national news to major Spanish outlets from all over.

Ryan Garcia was calm, cool and collected, embracing all of the attention he was getting while being peppered with questions. After the Q&A, Ryan did about a twenty-minute workout, which included pad work with his dad, shadow boxing and hitting the heavy bag.

What stood out to me the most was the snap that he had in his punches this early into camp. His dad and coach, Henry Garcia, was excited about how his son has looked and said that Ryan is already on or about 140 pounds, which is five pounds away from where he needs to be in a few weeks.

To up the ante of the event even more, the “Golden Boy” himself, Oscar De La Hoya was in attendance in support of his young star.

Speaking of Oscar, he dropped somewhat of a bombshell when he mentioned that there are discussions of an exhibition fight between himself and the great Julio Cesar Chavez. This came at a bit of a surprise as no one really expects Oscar to ever climb back in the ring in any capacity.. but he is set on making this happen. When I asked Oscar about it, he said,  ”I’ve been watching Chavez do these exhibitions with all of the money going to charity so I thought to myself, why not me and Chavez!”

Oscar also added, “I don’t know how many rounds, whether its 10, with headgear or without, me and Chavez have to talk about it and the WEIGHT, I’ll have to lose about 20 pounds!”

When I asked if it would be this year, Oscar said, “Yeah, yeah, absolutely”.

Oscar also talked about his other young fighters, like Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Blair “The Flair” Cobbs in a video that can be found on the NyFights Instagram page (@nyfights).

Given the attention this event received, it further solidifies that Ryan Garcia is a star and is on his way to super-stardom, just as long as he continues to win impressively and set himself up for that long awaited title shot.

ALSO…Here is the release GBP sent out, from the workout:

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 20, 2020): Rising lightweight sensation Ryan Garcia (19-0, 16 KOs) held a Los Angeles media tour today that included visits to KTLA, the Westside Boxing Club and the ESPN studios to promote the 12-round defense of his WBC Silver Lightweight Title against Francisco Fonseca (25-2-2, 19 KOs). The event will take place Saturday, Feb. 14 at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. and will be streamed live exclusively on DAZN.

Below are what Garcia and Oscar De La Hoya, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy, had to say during today's activities:

RYAN GARCIA, Lightweight Contender:

“I'm happy that we got this fight done at the Honda Center in Anaheim, so everyone is going to come out and enjoy this great night. The fact that Francisco Fonseca has fought similar opponents as Tevin Farmer and Gervonta Davis–I feel that it will show people where I am. They'll be able to compare the fights. I think that's why this fight is very important. The fans will be using it like a measuring stick. The media can use the fights to compare my skillset with Farmer and Davis against a similar opponent.”

“This year I plan to shock the world. In 2020, I want to set a standard where I'm only fighting the best guys. I definitely want Gervonta Davis for this year. I've been pushing for that fight to get done. That's all I want. To shock the world. The only way to do it is to do something hard. To beat Gervonta? That would be good.”

OSCAR DE LA HOYA, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy:

“Hopefully we don't see a lot of broken hearts, but hopefully we'll see a broken nose. This will be a great night for Ryan Garcia. He's in with a tough opponent. This year will be his coming out party. I think he'll be a world champion by the end of the year. He's getting stronger, faster, and wiser. For Ryan, we want the best for him. Ryan in a world title fight against a top fighter for 2020.”

 Garcia vs. Fonseca is a 12-round fight for the WBC Silver Lightweight Title presented by Golden Boy. The event is sponsored by Hennessy “Never Stop. Never Settle.” The event will take place Saturday, Feb. 14 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California and will be streamed live exclusively on DAZN.