Oscar De La Hoya posted a statement on social media, saying that Ryan Garcia’s scheduled eight-round exhibition on December 30th against Japanese kickboxer Rukiya Anpo will not go ahead unless Golden Boy Promotions signs off on it, which they haven’t done.
It’s not looking good for Ryan’s eight-rounder against the six-foot Anpo, or the company that was putting the event together, Fanmio. Someone should checked this out with Golden Boy before putting in the work to put the event together. If that wasn’t done, it’s surprising.
It’s still too early to know if the Garcia-Anpo event can go ahead. Golden Boy would likely be involved in some capacity, given that Ryan is under contract with them. Financially, it would have to make sense.
It’s risky on Golden Boy’s part to allow Ryan to fight the lanky 6’0″ welterweight Anpo because he’s huge, bigger than Ryan, and he can punch a little. We saw that in Anpo’s exhibition match with 45-year-old Manny Pacquiao last July. He dominated Pacquiao, hitting him with huge shots and treating it like a real fight.
There’s a chance that Ryan could get beaten by Anpo and look bad. That would lower Ryan’s value if he lost, which wouldn’t be good for Golden Boy to have their fighter’s stock drop in a risky fight against a huge welterweight.
Ryan has been serving a one-year suspension handed down by the New York State Athletic Commission for his positive test for a banned substance from his fight against Devin Haney on April 20th. He wanted to stay active while his suspension was still ongoing, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen now.
The question that many people have is whether Ryan, 26, is still communicating with De La Hoya and Golden Boy. If so, he should have let them know about the exhibition match on December 30th and gotten them involved.
