By Norm Frauenheim
It was part soap opera. Part outrageous. Often offensive. It was sometimes sad. Sometimes silly.
I’ll let somebody else decide what was real and what was fake. News conferences are always an impossible mix of fact and fiction.
Yet even by boxing’s over-the-top and off-the-rails standard, the Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia spectacle Thursday in Hollywood was bizarre.
Put it this way: It started with Devin Haney as the solid betting favorite for a junior-welterweight fight scheduled for April 20 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. It ended with a lot of people betting that Garcia just won’t show up.
Garcia was a man of many extremes throughout the second step of a coast-to-coast newser.
For a while, he turned it into a confessional. He said he smoked pot and drank alcohol. He said he didn’t use cocaine. He pleaded for some understanding.
“Guess what, we all have our flaws and we all have flaws as people,’’ said Garcia, who hours earlier posted a photo of him smoking what looked to be marijuana. “I’m 25 years old, you’ve got to remember. Sometimes, the weight of the world feels like it’s on my shoulders.
“I don’t know how many people have been 25-years-old and made $100 million in their life and can do what they want. I want to see what you would do in my shoes.
“Probably, a lot more than some weed.”
Then, he got angry, turning a boxing newser into a bully pulpit. He threatened somebody, who apparently doesn’t have much in common with Garcia other than alcohol.
“I’m going to beat the eff out of you,’’ Garcia shouted at a trash talker in the audience.
He was a man of many moods. He’s also a man with many followers, a social-media number that only a census can count. They’re always there, always demanding more from a personality always fearless and always willing to deliver a prayer, or a plea, or a punch. They follow him; he follows them.
Maybe, it was the setting. Like the stage at Hollywood’s Avalon, it was all Theater. That, at least, was the suggestion from many among Golden Boy Promotions. They argue that Garcia knows what he’s doing.
What he did Thursday, they say, was a calculated act, one designed to make Haney think he was in for an easy fight against his former amateur rival.
But after the newser, Haney had only one thought about a fighter he said he once respected.
“He’s not respecting himself,’’ said Haney, who might have summed up the news conference better than anyone.
NOTES
As The World Turns: Latest from Canelo-Benavidez
During a week dominated by Haney-Garcia, there was still some noise from boxing’s long-running saga, which continues to revolve around Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez.
For now, at least, it’s not happening. Not in May and probably not in September, although Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn continued to leave open the possibility of Canelo-Benavidez.
It all depends on Canelo’s next move. Reportedly, he has split with PBC after only one fight – a forgettable victory over Jermell Charlo – after signing a three-fight deal. Depending on the source, the money just wasn’t there to cover Canelo’s $35-million demand for a May fight. PBC said okay, but only if Benavidez was the third fight.
For whatever reason, however, Canelo has never wanted to fight the Phoenix-born Benavidez.
Here’s a theory:
Benavidez is to Canelo what Antonio Margarito was to Floyd Mayweather. Too much risk for the reward. Mayweather looked at the rugged Margarito and probably said to himself: “I’ll beat him, but I might pay a physical price.’’
The wisdom behind that risk-to-reward decision came in Manny Pacquiao’s victory over Margarito. Pacquiao was never quite the same after absorbing a brutal body shot midway through the fight on the Dallas Cowboys home field in November 2010.
It’s safe to say Canelo is confident he can beat Benavidez. At a point in his career when he’s been more vulnerable to injury, however, the risk is too high, especially against a tireless fighter with a gear few have in the later rounds. From the eighth to the 12th, nobody is as dangerous as Benavidez.
Meanwhile, Benavidez has begun training in Miami for a planned light-heavyweight bout against Oleksandr Gvoysk, possibly in June.
In media interviews from Miami, Benavidez said was willing to fight Canelo for $5 million, considered minimum wage for a Canelo opponent.
But Canelo’s minimum would have been at or near Benavidez’ biggest paycheck. It’s not clear what he collected for his decision over Caleb Plant in March 2023 in Vegas. The Nevada Commission no longer discloses purses. But it’s believed that it was a lot closer to $3 million than $5 million.
Oscar Valdez back in AZ in pursuit of another title
Oscar Valdez Jr, wants to knock out the former next to his name in his current resume.
“I’m hungrier than ever, because I’ve already tasted what it is to be a world champion,’’ Valdez said last week during a round of interviews for his March 29 bout versus Liam Wilson at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale AZ, where he lost a punishing decision for a vacant junior-lightweight title to Emanuel Navarrete in August.
Against Wilson, Valdez’ chances at another title will undergo a significant test. It’s a bout that puts the 33-year-old former two-time champion at a career crossroads.
Win, and he’ll be back in contention. Lose, and there’ll be talk of retirement.
Wilson, a 27-year-old Australian, is also returning to Desert Diamond. Wilson lost a controversial fight there to Navarrete in February 2023. In the fourth round, Wilson knocked down Navarrete, who bought himself some time to recover by spitting out his mouthpiece. Navarrete went to win a ninth-round TKO.
Wilson, Valdez said, “almost took that fight, almost won. There’s nothing easy about this fight. But I’m not looking for easy fights, I’m looking for challenges.’’
Olympic boxing needs help, yet says no to Pacquiao
The international Olympic Committee said no to Pacquiao’s petition for eligibility to box at the Paris Games this summer. He’s 45 — five years older than the boxing age limit and three years younger than Bernard Hopkins was when he won a major pro title at 48 in 2013.
He’s also nine years younger than Kelly Slater, who might be surfing’s best-known name since Duke Kahanamoku. At 54, Slater hopes to surf for the US at the 2024 Games.
The denial is just another reason not to watch Olympic boxing. Rhythmic gymnastics draws a bigger audience Pacquiao might be too old to answer an opening bell at any level these days, but he would have been a good ambassador for an endangered Olympic sport.
He might have generated some positive attention. Imagine that. These days, Olympic boxing gets headlines only for lousy decisions and gestures like Mick Conlan’s middle-finger salute to the judges in 2016. Olympic bureaucrats are threatening to eliminate it altogether.
