Golden Boy Promotions Sues Ryan Garcia To Enforce Contract

A Friday afternoon court filing by Golden Boy Promotions is the latest chapter in their soap opera out of the ring with it’s top star, Ryan Garcia. This, after Oscar De La Hoya’s organization filed in U.S. District Court in Nevada to as they said in a statement enforce their “valid promotional agreement” with Garcia.

The Friday development is the latest in the back and forth between Golden Boy/De La Hoya and Garcia, 23-1, who just lost his first fight by KO to Gervonta Davis in his biggest/most lucrative bout of his career back on April 22nd. That bout had a live gate in Las Vegas of over $20 million with a PPV purchase number of over 1.2 million, which is one of the largest non-heavyweight successes in the sport over the last five years.

The 10 page document filed Friday alleges that Garcia and his attorney Lupe Valencia have been acting in bad faith with them and have actually been trying to negotiate a deal with future fights without them. This, while claiming that the deal with Golden Boy is no longer valid due to multiple violations of it.

Golden Boy released a media statement Friday afternoon that read,

“Golden Boy has been proud to have worked with Ryan Garcia for the last several years and to help catapult him to the kind of stardom that led to the biggest pay-per-view event in years just two months ago,” the statement said.

“With this filing, we are seeking to ensure that Ryan and his team will honor the remainder of his contract, a contract that Ryan himself called ‘one of the most lucrative boxing deals for a prospect in the history of the sport.’ Since then, Ryan has moved on to becoming a legitimate contender, and we will continue to present Ryan with the best possible opponents that can eventually lead the way to a world championship and historic legacy.” 

It’s unclear, even from the court filing Friday, how many more fights that Garcia has remaining on his current deal with Golden Boy? That agreement went into effect in November 2019 after another soap opera with Garcia over money and more prominent opponents.

The drama included Garcia later backing out of a July 2021 main event for Golden Boy due to what he described as “mental health issues.” After taking several months away, Garcia went back into training but broke his hand and it further delayed his ring return into 2022. He scored two wins over Emmanuel Tagoe and Javier Fortuna to set up the Davis PPV showdown.

Part of the drama ratcheted back up, when De La Hoya did not join Garcia at the Davis post fight press conference. De La Hoya later claimed that he had received death threats and his security team had advised him to evacuate the arena.

De La Hoya also became agitated and repeatedly took to social media to complain that Garcia had cut off contact with him after the Davis loss.

Wtf @RyanGarcia it’s been almost two months and youre still crying about the post presser? The blame for your loss is on YOU and your “advisor”Lupe. He is the only one who pushed you to accept that INSANE rehydration clause and THAT is the reason you lost. Man up. Own that.

— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) June 2, 2023

However, he was apparently as recently as earlier this week trying to negotiate another bout for Garcia and again took to social media,

Talked to both Bob Arum and DonKing today, who do you want to see @RyanGarcia fight next ?

— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) June 12, 2023

Alas, things obviously are so sour that that Golden Boy has gone to court.

It’s worth noting that De La Hoya and Golden Boy were sued in another public soap opera by future Hall of Famer Canelo Alvarez back in September 2020. Alvarez alleged that De La Hoya was not allowed to dictate opponents to him in their deal. Eventually, Canelo was allowed out of his deal with Golden Boy, as part of an agreement to end his litigation.

Now, we await what Garcia will have to say or file in court in response to the Golden Boy legal action.