Every Thursday here at Fight Hype, I pull out my gigantic, bulbous, bulging sack and give truth-minded boxing fans a gander. This week, I shoot ropes of truth all over comments/questions regarding Ryan Garcia’s meltdown(s), Canelo on PBC (?), and Joshua-Ngannou.
The Latest on the Canelo Confusion
Hey Paul.
I’ve been trying to follow this entire Canelo/PBC/DAZN story, but I’m lost. There’s just so much conflicting and unclear or clearly biased information out on social media that I have no idea what’s happening. Can you provide some clarity on this situation? What can you tell us about Canelo, where he’ll be fighting May 4 and against who?
-- Dennis from SF.
Hey Dennis.
No matter what I say here, the information may be wildly outdated by the time this Mail Sack gets posted. As things stand right now, as I write this, it appears that Canelo will be fighting Jaime Munguia May 4 on Amazon Prime, under the PBC banner. It’s not clear yet how the business stuff will be handled as Munguia is a Zanfer Promotions fighter, who is co-promoted in the US by Golden Boy. I’m assuming that the DAZN broadcast deal is worked through Golden Boy, so Munguia would be free to fight elsewhere. My semi-educated guess is that PBC and Zanfer are working together on this deal and working around Golden Boy, who could put up a fuss about the broadcast specifics, but won’t. Golden Boy, with Ryan Garcia in full mental collapse mode and Vergil Ortiz just starting to get back to activity, can’t afford to put any distance between themselves and Munguia/Zanfer by standing in the way of this massive money fight. In a worst case scenario for GBP, they get nothing but the rights to broadcast damaged goods in Munguia after he gets beat by Canelo.
But, again, we really don’t know what’s going on. PBC keeps their business behind closed doors (like an actual business!) and Canelo’s camp of trusted reps is small and tight-knit, so leaks are not common. That’s why any and all info you’ve been hearing in media and social media has to be viewed with a certain degree of skepticism.
Ryan Garcia...WTF?
Magno.
WTF is going on with Ryan Garcia? This boy looks to be losing his mind. Is he on something or is he just having a mental breakdown? I read that Barboza was brought in as a replacement opponent for Devin Haney in case Garcia doesn’t make April 20. I’m thinking Garcia won’t be making the date. What’s going on?
-- Luis Cardoza
Hey Luis.
Ryan Garcia is in a bad place. His lack of clarity is growing and he looks to have nothing but enablers around him, happy to be hangers-on for whatever money and prestige may come their way. It doesn’t look good. Wednesday morning, his social media talk escalated into Aliens, Elon Musk is the anti-christ, and ritual satanic rape and sacrifice. To ignite the frenzied path to self-destruction, his talk has found him allies in the weirdo conspiracy theory set, who are now rushing to put him on a pedestal. As a result, Ryan has recently called himself a prophet, doing the work of God as an anointed one, while saying that “they” have threatened to, literally, crucify him for speaking out against their evil, satanic ways. This will not turn out well for the kid.
Boxing should be low on the list of concerns when it comes to Ryan Garcia. BUT. If Garcia pulls out (or is pulled out), I don’t think that April 20 date stands. Haney may fight Barboza, but not April 20 and most assuredly not on pay-per-view. If they do go through with Haney-Barboza on that date, it’ll be off pay-per-view (and purses will be adjusted accordingly). Can you imagine trying to sell Haney-Barboza two weeks before Canelo-Munguia?
Canelo, Ryan (Again)
Hey Paul.
Love the column, hope all is well with you.
Well, first off I’m a big Canelo, but all this talk with Munguia, Berlanga, Benavidez is getting really frustrating. He needs to fight Benavidez, period. The other guys are good ones, but he walks right through those other guys. I don’t like the way he’s going about the May 4th fight. It’s getting old and annoying. He needs to fight or Munguia in May, Benavidez in September and beat the shit out of that hype job Edgar Berlanga in 2025 to retire and that’s that. Let me know what you think.
Also, what’s up with this idiot Ryan Garcia? The kid’s an idiot looking for an excuse to get out of that boring fight with Haney. It’s gonna be a 12-round decision for Haney and Garcia will be done after that. Tell me what you think. Thank you.
-- AF
Hey AF.
I talked about a lot of the Canelo and Ryan Garcia stuff in the previous responses, so I won’t repeat myself.
You’re right-- Benavidez is, by far, the best option for Canelo in every possible sense. Munguia is a decent compromise between the best option and the shitty options, but I’d be disappointed if the Benavidez fight isn’t made next. It’s only one fight, but this would be such a clear case of avoidance, that it WILL affect Canelo’s legacy, IMO.
I don’t think Ryan is faking any of this or trying to get out of the Haney fight. I think he’s having a legitimate mental breakdown that may or may not have been exasperated by substance abuse issues. That’s just my take. But I think it’s pretty clear that his poor mental state is for real.
Joshua-Ngannou
Hey Mags!
Any thoughts on Joshua vs Ngannou this Friday? Despite the cool promo video, there’s been zero buzz about this fight. Probably because it’s a most unserious event I would guess.
Keep giving ‘em hell my man
-- Damon
Hey Damon.
Nope. I haven’t given this fight much thought at all. Actually, I just realized that it’ll be a Friday afternoon fight in the Americas, which is good for me, but bad for the idea of turning a profit on an event where the main event fighters, alone, will reportedly be earning about $70 million. But, as I mentioned before, the Saudis probably aren’t running this boxing business to turn a profit. Consider Joshua-Ngannou to be a $70 million commercial for Saudi tourism as a Las Vegas of the Middle East (where they sometimes behead people).
My hopes for this fight are the same as my pre-fight hopes for Tyson Fury-Francis Ngannou. I’m hoping for Joshua to be embarrassed and for Ngannou to land something big that drops him. Cynicism deserves cynicism. But I think Joshua learned a lesson from watching Fury humiliate himself by taking the boxing novice lightly and he’ll fight cautiously behind a jab that Ngannou won’t be able to work around. Eventually, he’ll land something big and stop Ngannou. Then, we can all get back to real heavyweight boxing business.
Got a question (or hate mail) for Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack? The best of the best gets included in the weekly mailbag segment right here at FightHype. Send your stuff here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com.