Ryan Garcia and fellow lightweight contender Javier Fortuna had a nice moment Thursday during the final news conference before their fight Saturday in Los Angeles (Showtime).
Garcia, sitting on a stool about two meters away from his opponent, glanced at Fortuna and gave him a compliment. “I actually like his hat, too, his Chicago Bulls hat. I’m a Chicago Bulls fan. That’s pretty sick. I like your hat, man.”
Fortuna then took off the cap, walked over to Garcia and gave it to him, after which Garcia smiled and expressed his gratitude.
Does that mean the fighters will engage in a friendly scrap at Crypto.com Arena? Uh, no. They made that clear a moment after Fortuna’s good wyouill gesture.
“This doesn’t guarantee … that me giving you the cap … that on Saturday I’m not going to take your head off,” the Dominican said through a translator.
“A hundred percent,” Garcia responded. “We know what we do in the ring. I’m coming to f— him up, too. I don’t care if he gave me a hat or not. I’m going to whip his ass. That’s it.”
“That’s a good thing. I don’t want any excuses. I like that,” Fortuna said, after which he and Garcia engaged in spirited trash talk during the obligatory stare down before they were separated.
Garcia (22-0, 18 KOs) is coming off a unanimous-decision victory over Emmanuel Tagoe in April, his first fight after taking 15 months off following his victory over Luke Campbell to deal with injuries and his mental health.
The 23-year-old from the Southern California desert has repeatedly predicted that he will knock out Fortuna (37-3, 26 KOs), who has been stopped only once in his career.
And Garcia reiterated on Thursday that he wants to make a statement as he tries to position himself to get fights against the top 135-pounders, including prospective opponent and fellow social media star Gervonta Davis.
“I’m just determined to do something amazing, to entertain the fans, give them a good show,” Garcia said. “… He wants to knock me out as well. So we’re going to be throwing punches. We’re going to give the fans a great fight.
“… I’m focused, locked in, ready to do my job. I’m done talking. I’m ready to fight.”
If things go well on Saturday, Garcia’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, said he’d begin the process of putting together a fight with Davis.
That will be challenging because Davis is managed by the rival Premier Boxing Champions. However, both Garcia and Davis have expressed interest in making what would be a lucrative matchup between the unbeaten young fighters.
“Ryan Garcia wants Gervonta Davis,” De La Hoya said. “And as his promoter I’m going to get him what he wants, to make the fight happen. It’s not going to be easy. You know on the other side of the street is [PBC’s] Al Haymon, who always wants to break up fights, to keep fights amongst his stable only.
“… [Davis] is a special fighter and so is Ryan Garcia. When you have two fighters like that who really want to fight each other, it has to be made.”
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