The aftermath of the much-awaited bout between Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia noticeably saw Garcia’s promoters ― Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkinson ― and his trainer Joe Goossen, absent from the post-press conference. In the days following the event held at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, Ryan Garcia’s promoters and trainer offered contrasting reasons for their absence. Given it is a regular occurrence for fighter’s promoter and trainer to be present at a post-match press conference, the exclusion of Garcia’s team naturally piqued some curiosity.
Bernard Hopkins, a retired professional boxing legend and now a co-promoter with Golden Boy Promotions ― founded and owned by Oscar De La Hoya, offered his own explanation for his non-attendance.
“First of all, we had Eric Gomez, who is the president of Golden Boy ― who handles and structures with the assistants and everyone there. Second, it wasn’t going to be about Oscar. It wasn’t going to be about Bernard Hopkins.” The former undisputed Middleweight champion rationalized during an interview with Fight Hype.
“The focus is about Ryan being there, with Tank, the fans that’s there, the questions of the reporters that await to shoot. What else can we say, given what we said before the fight, after the fight?
“Oscar will have his interview ― whoever he does it with, Monday morning or Tuesday. I’m not going to turn anything into a circus because even though the fight is over, if they saying that I was gonna put testosterone or whatever it is, that’s the reason I was…” Hopkins said, implying with his last words that he stayed away from the post-press conference because of allegations that were launched against Hopkins of him trying trying to put testosterone cream on Gervonta Davis during a heated exchange during the weigh-in of the event.
“They were trying to come up with something because they realized I didn’t try to touch him in a negative or aggressive way and you hear me saying, ‘watch the edge’, so they had to come up with the cream. It’s a conspiracy. I didn’t know if things were over with, and it’s Ryan’s time. This is his time.” Hopkins continued.
While Hopkins cited the issues he had stemming around his issues with Gervonta Davis and his team as a reason for being absent, but provided no real context of a ban or expulsion that would disallow him from being close to Ryan Garcia during his lowest moment following his loss.
Oscar De La Hoya offered an explanation for his and Hopkins’ absence, but threw even more confusion into the matter with claims of a ban that had been put on Bernard Hopkins, and supposed death threats he had received during the week leading up to fight night.
“I do want to clarify why Bernard Hopkins and I weren’t at the post-fight pres conference. First of all, Bernard Hopkins was accused during the weigh-in of having testosterone cream on his hands,and touching Gervonta Davis when he only wanted to help him, because he was going to fall off the stage.” Oscar stated in his own address to the public.
“PBC, Gervonta’s promoter, banned him from everything. He couldn’t get inside the ring, he couldn’t do anything during the promotion. As for myself, my security team told me ‘boss, we got to get out of here’ because I received death threats.
“You guys don’t know this, I received death threats throughout the whole week and they just said it was simply too dangerous, so we got out of there. Plus, Eric Gomez, who is my president, was right there front and center with Ryan Garcia so there was no issue, no problems.
“This is all coming from all these PBC minions that are just attacking Ryan, attacking Golden Boy, but it’s all good. It’s all good. Ryan Garcia made this happen, Tank made this happen. We had a great fight, the best man won, my hats off to you and again, Tank Davis, you’re a great fighter. Ryan, I have your back, Bernard has your back. We’re with you a thousand percent and you will be back stronger than ever, better than ever. Guaranteed.” De La Hoya closed.
Despite both promoters’ explanations of their absence of the post-presser, neither explanation truly bases itself on the reality of their circumstances. Bernard Hopkins never verified whether he was actually banned, while Oscar De La Hoya seemed to believe otherwise. Additionally, Oscar De La Hoya cited his self-expulsion from the press conference to be due to death threats he had received over the past week, despite being present throughout the entire week up until the end of the main event that included the post-match conference.
Joe Goossen, Ryan Garcia’s trainer, has not yet been available for any sort of comment, which is a decisively rare occurrence given he had been well-present in the build-up to the fight. Even though Ryan Garcia’s promoters offered questionable explanations for them not being own present, his own trainer could not even be reached, which raises even more eyebrows.
In any case, Ryan Garcia was accompanied by his parents and representatives of Golden Boy Promotions ― including its current president, but the lack of support from the people who were most expected to be beside him ― win or lose ― may be the sign of the beginning of the end of what had been a long and fruitful relationship between Ryan Garcia and Golden Boy Promotions.
