By: Sean Crose
Oscar De La Hoya posted a picture on Instagram Tuesday night of himself and his star fighter Ryan Garcia. Both men are pointing at a paper in De La Hoya’s hand. “Verified,” De La Hoya posted alongside the picture. “Devil is in the details. April 15 let’s go!!! @kingryan @gervontaa.” The suggestion here is clear – a contract for a highly anticipated bout between Garcia and fellow undefeated star Gervonta Davis is now in Golden Boy promoter De La Hoya’s possession and is on the verge of being signed.
De La Hoya had earlier indicated a superfight between Garcia and Davis was likely to happen in the spring. This no doubt came as a welcome relief to those who read a tweet De La Hoya posted on Sunday. “I have no contract,” De La Hoya stated at the time. “Deadline for me is Monday or I’m moving on. #DavisGarcia. ” Long story short – De La Hoya was calling out team Davis for not sending along a contract for a Davis-Garcia fight, and was letting it be known (or pretending to let it be known) that he was through sitting around.
Fortunately, the Hall of Fame fighter turned promoter had a far better outlook on Tuesday. “I have a meeting literally in 2 hours with Ryan Garcia,” he said to TMZ, “and I should look at my email right now. I should have the contract for the fight so I’m looking forward to putting that together and hopefully announcing soon.” That announcement, should it come, will be much welcome news to fans, especially in light of a welterweight megabout between titlists Terence Crawford and Errol Spence recently falling through.
To be sure, De La Hoya is now coming across as very confident that the much hoped for David-Garcia match will soon be a reality. “I’m actually very optimistic now that this fight will happen April 15th,” he said to TMZ. “It’s the biggest that could be made.” In that, De La Hoya is right. Both Davis and Garcia are young, explosive and very powerful. They’re also quite popular. Garcia is a social media powerhouse while Davis sells out venues on a regular business.
“Nobody is backing out,” De La Hoya continued. “The contract is coming. I’ll tell you one thing, Ryan Garcia wants to knock him out so bad. He’s calling it in two rounds. I actually believe it but then again, I think about Tank Davis who is a beast. He is an animal! He’s a great fighter.”
De La Hoya, it appears, already had his promoter’s hat on. “Both guys are in their prime,” he said. “Both guys are undefeated. It’s gonna be a great fight, and you know what, in two hours we’re gonna make it happen.”