NEW YORK — Ryan Garcia wanted his fans to know his title fight against super lightweight champion Devin Haney belonged on boxing’s biggest stage.
“This is a MGM Vegas fight, doing everything we can to bring this to Vegas and giving this fight what it deserves!!!” he wrote Feb. 23 on social media.
One problem: Oscar De La Hoya, his promoter, had already announced two days earlier that the event was headed to Brooklyn. So perhaps the fighters themselves were just as confused as fight fans as to why two Californians would go across the country for their April 20 showdown.
“I want this fight to still be in Vegas. I’ve been on the record saying that anyway, but I don’t want to get too into it,” Garcia said Monday at his New York hotel, a day before the fighters will have their opening press conference. “Wherever this fight is going to be it’s going to be, so I’m happy to fight in NYC. I have no problem. I’ll bring the energy and it’ll be great.”
Boxing’s biggest bouts have long been in Las Vegas, and both fighters had one last year. Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) was stopped by Gervonta Davis in April, a month before Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) defended his titles against Vasiliy Lomachenko in his final fight at lightweight before moving up to the 140-pound limit.
But with Canelo Alvarez, boxing’s biggest draw, expected to fight there May 4, De La Hoya said there was a risk that fans wouldn’t pay up for tickets to two events so close together. Besides, he thinks there’s a need to bring Garcia, already with a huge social media following, to a new audience.
“The greats, the best, fought in New York in order to become a world champion,” De La Hoya said. “Not a Vegas champion, not a California champion, but a global world champion, and so I’ve always thought that fighters who want to be superstars must fight in New York. This is why we’re here.”
Haney seems to have less problem with it. He fought once as a pro in New York, in the smaller Theater at Madison Square Garden, and hoped to return to the city before a bigger crowd.
“I just knew it would be in Vegas, but I’m not mad about New York,” he said. “This is a great opportunity, the media capital of the world. There’s so many eyeballs, so we can make this thing as big as it should be and I think it’s going to be great. I think it’s going to be just as good as if it was in Vegas.”