LOS ANGELES – Like virtually every boxing fan, Ryan Garcia has wanted to see Terence Crawford fight Errol Spence Jr. for quite some time.
Despite his fractured relationship with Canelo Alvarez, Garcia also realizes that the Mexican superstar’s third showdown with Gennadiy Golovkin is still one of boxing’s most marketable matchups. Garcia firmly believes, though, that once his fight against Gervonta Davis materializes it’ll eclipse Alvarez-Golovkin III and Crawford-Spence as the biggest fight in the sport.
Crawford, Spence, Alvarez and Golovkin are all more accomplished, experienced, elite-level boxers, but Garcia argued during a post-fight interview streamed by DAZN on Saturday night that there will be more buzz for his fight versus Davis.
“Here’s the thing – they’re bigger now,” Garcia told DAZN’s broadcast team of Chris Mannix, Sergio Mora and Shawn Porter following his sixth-round knockout of Javier Fortuna at Crypto.com Arena. “But once the buildup starts and we get it signed, the hype around it will overtake everything. You gotta remember, you know, things rise up because people don’t believe it’s gonna happen. But once it’s set, it will be bigger than any fight out there. I don’t care about Canelo-Triple-G III.
“I don’t care about – I mean, I love those fights because Crawford and Spence, right, that’s a fight I always wanted to see. But I’m saying like commercially, you know, the general public, once that fight’s announced it’s the biggest fight out there.”
Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) and Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) will fight for Alvarez’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles September 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. DAZN will stream the third Alvarez-Golovkin fight as a pay-per-view main event.
Representatives for Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs), the WBO welterweight champion, and Spence (28-0, 22 KOs), the IBF/WBA/WBC champ, are moving toward finalizing a deal for their highly anticipated 147-pound title unification fight sometime in November.
Platform and promotional complications could prevent Davis and Garcia from meeting in a pay-per-view main event next. For Davis, 27, and Garcia, 23, to square off later this year, it’ll take cooperation among Mayweather Promotions and Showtime, which represent Davis (27-0, 25 KOs), and Golden Boy Promotions and DAZN, which work with Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs).
Garcia, of Victorville, California, also has requested that Baltimore’s Davis move up from the lightweight limit of 135 pounds to the junior welterweight maximum of 140 to face him.
The contract weight for Garcia’s victory over Fortuna was 140 pounds. Davis stopped former WBA super lightweight champ Mario Barrios in the 11th round of their June 2021 fight at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, but that was Davis’ lone appearance at the junior welterweight limit.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
