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Oscar De La Hoya to Ryan Garcia: 'Just Honor My Contract'
Oscar De La Hoya, the renowned boxing champion and promoter, expressed his contentment with his current status, not with standing ongoing legal and verbal disputes with Ryan Garcia, a fellow boxer, and Eddie Hearn, a boxing promoter. De La Hoya aired his thoughts on The MMA Hour recently, expressing no plans to back down from either conflict, instead insisted that Garcia should honor his boxing contract. A legal face-off is imminent between De La Hoya and Ryan Garcia, a former Golden Boy Promotions star. Garcia lodged accusations against De La Hoya for breaching his boxing contract, subsequently leading to De La Hoya's federal lawsuit seeking to uphold the boxing contract. De La Hoya clarified:
“I’m not suing him for money, he’s not suing me for money. I just want him to honor my boxing contract. That’s it."He strongly urged Garcia to fulfill his contractual obligations and expressed his desire for Garcia's success. De La Hoya showed regret over the deteriorated relationship following Garcia's defeat to Davis, with Garcia alleging a lack of support and accusing his team of betrayal. De La Hoya, in response, publicly advised Garcia to show resilience instead of expressing disappointment. De La Hoya confessed to feeling disheartened but recollected former Top Rank promoter Bob Arum's advice not to take such setbacks personally. Currently, the legal conflict seems to be at a deadlock, with De La Hoya blaming Garcia's inner circle for creating a rift. However, he still holds onto the possibility of conducting business with Garcia in the future:
“Yeah, absolutely. I still have several years in this contract.”Meanwhile, De La Hoya's ongoing feud with Eddie Hearn, head of Matchroom Boxing, revolves around their shared contracts with DAZN, the streaming platform caught in the middle of the antagonism. Over the past year, the two have clashed over various professional matters, including the subject of Canelo Alvarez and potential bouts. De La Hoya declined to divulge the root cause of the discord but criticized Hearn's understanding of the American market and his promotional strategies:
“Just let me do my job here, and let me take care of business. Because obviously he doesn’t know the market here."Despite criticizing Hearn's approach, De La Hoya did not entirely shut the door to future collaborations. He suggested that Hearn could learn from the way co-promotion was handled in the past on platforms like HBO. He expressed his confidence in navigating the U.S. market and indicated a willingness to work with Hearn provided he understands and adjusts to the market's nuances.
