Ryan Garcia on Failed Manny Pacquiao Fight Talks: ‘That’s on Him’

John Locher/Associated Press

Up-and-coming boxing star Ryan Garcia blamed Manny Pacquiao on Wednesday for the fact that they have yet to come to official terms on a fight.

In an interview with TMZ Sports, Garcia suggested the only reason why the fight isn’t happening is because there’s a holdup on Pacman’s side:

“Manny came to offer me the fight,” Garcia said. … “Obviously, I would love to fight Manny Pacquiao, but that’s on him. That’s on him.”

It currently looks as though Garcia vs. Pacquiao won’t happen any time soon despite the fact that Garcia posted about the fight on Instagram last month as if it were finalized with the caption: “A dream turned reality. It’s an honor to share the ring with [Pacquiao]. I will always respect what you did in and out the ring. Here’s to the best man winning.”

The 22-year-old Garcia is one of the fastest-rising stars in boxing, as he owns a 21-0 record with 18 knockouts and is coming off a TKO victory over Luke Campbell in January to win the vacant WBC interim lightweight title.

While Garcia potentially has years of greatness ahead of him, the 42-year-old Pacquiao is on the other end of the spectrum.

Pacquiao is among the all-time greats with a career record of 62-7-2. He is also the only eight-division champion in the history of professional boxing.

Although Pacquiao isn’t technically retired, he hasn’t fought since beating Keith Thurman in July 2019. Pacman handed Thurman his first career loss and also beat Adrien Broner that year, proving he can still get the job done.

It can be argued that Pacquiao lost some of his luster in a one-sided decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015, but he is 5-1 since with the only defeat being a highly controversial decision loss to Jeff Horn in 2017.

Pacquiao would represent the most significant opponent of Garcia’s career thus far by a significant margin, but with that fight seemingly no longer in the cards, Garcia has set his sights on someone else.

Garcia told TMZ that he wants a fight with Gervonta Davis, adding, “I’ll knock him out in two rounds.”

Like Garcia, the 26-year-old Davis is undefeated at 24-0, and he is also a knockout artist, as he has stopped his opponent in 23 of 24 fights. He is the reigning WBA (Regular) lightweight champ and WBA (Super) super featherweight champion.

If that fight can’t be made either, Garcia suggested that he is open to facing Vasyl Lomachenko, who is licking his wounds after an upset loss at the hands of Teofimo Lopez in October.