Ahead of his July 16 fight scheduled with Javier Fortuna, lightweight Ryan Garcia fields some media questions and expresses his continued desire to make a big fight against Gervonta Davis, while also reflecting how he missed out on that opportunity last year when he was mislead to believe he had a fight lined up with Manny Pacquiao. Check out some of what Garcia had to say below.
Ryan Garcia on if a win over Javier Fortuna sets him up for a showdown with Gervonta Davis or the winner in the rematch between Devin Haney-George Kambosos
“I think it’s quite obvious that we’re headed towards — I mean I’ve spoken about it so many times — obviously once I get past Fortuna, definitely I’m going to be campaigning for that fight with Gervonta Davis.
“Like I’ve said as well in the past, I’m down to really be transparent about the negotiations the whole process through to really prove to the people that I really want this fight and in no way would I not actually want this fight, that it’s not a front. So however I can be transparent legally, as much as I can, to show I’m definitely willing to make the fight happen, I’m willing to do that. And, yeah, I want to fight Gervonta Davis next after I beat Fortuna.”
On if he thinks he made a mistake about being too vocal about his plans to fight Tank in the past
“I think I’m all about the truth…just the way these managers and people try to spin off on me because it’s so easy to look at me and say that I’m ducking or whatnot because all of the things that I’ve said. But it’s really been a set up and traps and illusions by these promoters and these managers to make it seem like I ducked out of the fight in some way, when the facts are I never ducked the fight and I always tried to make it happen.
“So now I just try to find ways to really exploit the truth and clear the smog, or clear the fog in the way of the truth. And this is the way I feel like I can do it, really be as transparent as I can possibly be in every step of the way, just as I was with the (Isaac) Cruz negotiations. And it came to show that they didn’t want to fight and I wasn’t the one ducking regardless of people always trying to fit the narrative that I’m not trying to fight when that’s really not the case.”
On who he believes hasn’t been negotiating with him in good faith
“I think (Cruz) was pretty much the only one at that point in particular because it started with the Manny Pacquiao situation with Sean Gibbons. He definitely blew that whole thing up. He was posting about it, he had the contract supposedly there for me. So anybody with a logical mind would want to fight Manny Pacquiao over Gervonta Davis, and honestly, he screwed that fight up for me.
“And that’s just the bottom line truth. That’s the bedrock truth, so I don’t really care what anybody else says. He made it seem like he had that fight on lock, he had me on facetime with Manny Pacquiao. I don’t know what would be their intention to trick me, but that cost me a fight with Gervonta last year after Luke Campbell, but it is what it is. Now I can just reflect and learn from that mistake and just don’t be so gullible in people.”