Notes from the Boxing Underground: Saving Private Ryan (Garcia)
What the very public social media cat fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Ryan Garcia revealed about both men.
(Originally Published: June, 2023 @ FightHype.com)
Watching Oscar De La Hoya and Ryan Garcia beef last week was like watching a tragically flawed 50-year-old arguing with the tragically flawed 24-year-old version of himself via social media time machine.
I’m not going to pretend to be appalled or angered by anything said in that brief Twitter skirmish. Honestly, I was kinda happy for the material in a slow news week where the biggest stories were Tank Davis going to jail, Claressa Shields fight week buzz, and Spence-Crawford ticket prices. Some day when I get my “F-You” money, I’ll send Oscar a gift basket full of kitchen utensils and Charmnight Fishnets as a token of my appreciation for always coming through with some crazy-ass material
And, yeah, what happened last week between the two Golden divas was, indeed, “crazy-ass”-- especially from Oscar’s side. Bear with me and I’ll get to the more serious stuff later on...but first...
The tiff began when De La Hoya, shirtless and running his fingers over his etched abs (I’m assuming), got wind of Garcia griping in a video with YouTube fitness coach Bradley Martyn. “King Ry” was lamenting over the lack of support he received from his team after his April 22 loss to Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
“Thank God that he showed everybody that, you know, he may have not been working for me,” Garcia told Martin. “If I won, I wouldn’t have got to see it. I lost, I seen everybody leave me…and then I started to see who was really here for me…After the fight, nobody was there for me. My team just didn’t come to the press conference…I was left with ‘somebody betrayed me in camp.’ They weren’t trying to look out for me after the fight…I was left with that….It was the worst. I had Tank’s team really care about me more than my own team.”
Obviously, Ryan didn’t know about all those death threats that had Oscar scurrying to, um, eat dinner after the fight at a swanky restaurant. But I digress...
Seeing Garcia’s life lesson on YouTube obviously didn’t sit well with Oscar. So, the former six-division world champ brushed aside the batches of his unsold Masculen Titan capsules, the ones that enhance “sperm profiles” and “control over your manhood when you need it most,” to reach for his phone (I’m assuming).
“Wtf @RyanGarcia it’s been almost two months and youre [sic] still crying about the post presser?” Oscar tweeted. “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.”
“Also, you keep saying ‘tanks [sic] team offered more support for you’ blah blah blah,” Oscar added. “Bro they SET YOU UP TO LOSE with that rehydration clause and most importantly…AL HAYMON DIDNT [sic!] EVEN SHOW UP THE ENTIRE WEEK. Actually, he NEVER shows up. How’s that for “support”???”
Garcia, being the diva that he is, wasn’t about to be out-diva’d by Oscar. The young star would put his TikTok dance routine on hold (I’m assuming) to fire back a crisper counter than anything thrown in the Tank Davis contest.
“Weren’t you just promoting the fake Pac fight that I already told you I’m not accepting [Oh yeah, Oscar floated out a ridiculous Garcia vs. Pacquiao rumor to media shortly before this shit hit the fan]. You really think ima fall for that bull twice.”
“Okay buddy, you got it all figured out,” Garcia tweeted, while bad-ass hitting a Cobra bag in an Instagram Live video (I’m assuming). “Tired of you disrespecting my whole career and you think none of it matters. Loyalty and common sense is lost in your head. Stop treating people that way and think they will just accept it.”
“You know I’m about to fight this guy [referring to a photo tweeted by De La Hoya where a smiling De La Hoya is posing with Rolando “Rolly” Romero] and you go act buddy buddy with him. You don’t care about your fighters. Really tired of this fake act!! STOP THE CAP BE REAL FOR ONCE MAN. I can respect you more if you just told me the truth, you’re in it for the cash. No love lost.”
There was some other stuff, but you get the drift.
In the days following his first career loss, Ryan Garcia revealed himself to be, in many ways, an immature, entitled kid whose outside-the-ring star status has kept him from putting in the serious, humbling work needed to become an elite-level fighter. Actually, if you read my stuff regularly, you would’ve known that BEFORE the Tank Davis fight. So, don’t listen to those boxing blogger nerds who gather on Twitter to talk about how NOBODY reads me anymore, keep reading my stuff.
Oscar, sadly, also acted true to form in this catty brouhaha, forcing the adults in the Golden Boy room to try and clean up his mess once again. Lack of restraint and absence of basic common sense may have cost his promotional company a major box office draw for the second time in less than three years.
