Oscar De La Hoya releases statement amid Ryan Garcia's recent racial comments: "There is no room for hate or intolerance at my company"
In the next unfortunate chapter of Ryan Garcia's current story, the 25-year-old boxer has been banned from competing in the WBC as of July 4. The decision was made in response to a series of racist and discriminative comments from the young star on Twitter Spaces.
Garcia is the biggest name currently under contract with Golden Boy Promotions, so Oscar De La Hoya issued an official statement on the incident. The promoter said he "condemned" Garcia's comments "in the strongest terms possible but did not mention any punishment his promotion would inflict on the fighter.
De La Hoya tweeted:
"There is no room for hate or intolerance at my company. Period. I condemn Ryan's words in the strongest terms possible. I see that he has apologized, and that is a start — but it is only a start to earn back the trust and respect of those of us who have and continue to support him."
De La Hoya continued to say that he, along with the rest of the Golden Boy Promotions organization, hopes that Garcia uses the next year — in which he is suspended from boxing — to seek help.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman announced Garcia's indefinite ban from the council just hours after the audio messages went viral.
Oscar De La Hoya's statement: What did Ryan Garcia say?
For reasons only known to himself, Ryan Garcia joined a Twitter Space on July 4 while disturbingly issuing racist and Islamophobic comments.
In the audio message, 'King Ryan' said he "hates n****" and is "anti-black" before doubling down on his statement by saying he desires to join the Ku Klux Klan, KKK, to "kill" African-Americans. Garcia furthered his comments by bringing up the controversial murder of George Floyd, saying he would bring the deceased American back to life only to "kill that n***** again."
In a separate Twitter Space, Garcia got into a heated argument with the streamer 'Sneako' and other listeners, leading to him saying he "hates" all Muslims, whom he called "weird a** f******."
Garcia has since issued half-hearted apologies on X while not taking back any of his comments. As of July, he remains suspended from boxing for testing positive for PEDs in his fight with Devin Haney on April 20.