Ryan Garcia’s lawyer and advisor Guadalupe Valencia has been instrumental in guiding Garcia’s career, all while negotiating lucrative offers and opportunities outside of the sport for the 25-year-old.
The power broker Valencia spearheaded and orchestrated a deal for Garcia that allowed him to earn nearly $30 million in a knockout loss to Gervonta Davis in April.
The 136-pound catchweight clash was a commercial success by all accounts and will be remembered as boxing’s biggest blockbuster of 2023. The event generated nearly 1.2 million pay-per-view buys and $22 million in ticket revenue.
Garcia is now ready to revive his career and bounce back Saturday against Oscar Duarte, but during the build-up of the fight, public comments from Garcia’s promoters Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins have struck negative chords with Garcia and Valencia.
Complicating matters further, Garcia and Golden Boy are currently in ongoing legal matters around their promotional pact.
As the feud-filled week culminated following the Friday weigh-in, Valencia discussed the ugly back-and-forth battle that ensued.
“A promoter is supposed to promote a fight and back their fighters, especially when you have a superstar like Ryan Garcia,” Valencia told BoxingScene.com in an interview.
“I don’t think anyone inside or outside of boxing thinks they are promoting Ryan properly. It’s just really difficult to figure out why Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins say some of the bizarre things they say. It’s also odd that Oscar says ‘other people around Ryan are in his ear’ as if Ryan is not smart and his own person and has the ability to think for himself. Ryan is a smart guy, and a lot smarter than them, I can tell you that. Ryan is reacting to what they are doing. He doesn’t need a ‘team’ to figure out what they are saying and what Ryan is experiencing for himself. You can’t create a narrative that ‘he’s getting bad advice.’ The source of the problems are them saying bizarre things that are not appropriate for a promoter to be saying. Ryan articulately reacted to the disrespect he experienced. I was extremely disappointed at the conduct of two 50-plus-year-old guys who are supposed to be promoting and moving Ryan’s career forward. Ryan wants to continue to fight in 2024 and he doesn’t want anything to stop him. What that structure is like depends on the future litigation. Certainly what they’ve done in this fight has not helped their own cause [in the ongoing legal matters].”
In a separate interview with BoxingScene.com, De La Hoya remained confident that both sides can find grounds to work together moving forward.
“I am very confident [the legal matters] will get worked out. We are promoting Ryan for the foreseeable future and I am going to do the best job possible to make him the most money, and then that’s it,” said De La Hoya.
“[We still have] a multi-year deal [with Garcia] … I’m in his corner … I have nothing against him. I am working for him and want to get the best deals possible. I hope one day he becomes a world champion and we can get past this.”
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.