Alvarez’s former promoter continuously takes shots at the Mexican superstar for avoiding David Benavidez and fighting strictly for money over legacy. “The Golden Boy” was so frustrated by what he witnessed from ringside Friday night, though, that he took to Instagram on Sunday to criticize most of the boxers who competed in 12-round bouts as part of The Ring’s “FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves” card in Times Square.
Three of those fighters –
Ryan Garcia,
Jose Ramirez and Arnold Barboza Jr. – are promoted by the six-division champion’s company and lost unanimous decisions in forgettable fights that failed to entertain. The overall lack of action generated during those 36 rounds frustrated De La Hoya, who bemoaned their inability to perform in ways that justifies purses paid by the financial backer of the unique event, Turki Alalshikh, who bought The Ring from him last fall.
“ I’m here in the Bahamas, disrupting my vacation,” De La Hoya said, “because I just have to speak on the 11 fights that I just saw, with no knockouts [between Friday and Saturday]. Let’s give credit where it’s due – [Rolly Romero], congratulations. You came out and fought, had a great win. I’m happy for you. I really am. You’re a nice kid. Teofimo’s the only one that probably came out and tried to entertain the fans with what he had to work with.
“And I feel bad for Turki. I really do. He’s paying all this money to the fighters ... to show up and fight and give the fight fans what the fans deserve, and those are great fights. Show up. Not just dancing around like Bill Haney and Devin Haney. IMy gosh, he was tagged a couple of times by Ramirez, and he just gets on his bicycle and just starts running for his life. Jesus! Anyway, he’s done.”
Haney (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC), a former undisputed lightweight champ from Henderson, Nevada, defeated Ramirez (29-3, 18 KOs), a former WBC/WBO 140-pound champ from Avenal, California, by unanimous decision.
Their thoroughly boring bout included only 503 combined punches thrown in 12 rounds, according to CompuBox’s unofficial statistics. That is the fourth-lowest total of punches attempted in a 12-round fight in CompuBox history.
Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs, 1 NC) was an 11-1 favorite to defeat Romero (17-2, 13 KOs), who dropped Garcia with a left hook early in the second round and upset him by unanimous decision. They combined to throw a mere 499 punches, CompuBox’s third-lowest total for a 12-round fight.
Romero’s huge upset devalued the Haney-Garcia rematch, for which both boxers signed contracts before they fought Friday night.
Teofimo Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) impressively outboxed Barboza (32-1, 11 KOs) to retain his Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles. Lopez placed himself in position to fight Haney, Romero or Ring/IBF/WBA welterweight champ Jaron “Boots” Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs, 1 NC).
De La Hoya questioned the motivation of the participants.
“It starts from the top, too,” he said, alluding to Alvarez. "When you’re fighting for the money and not legacy, every young fighter just follows that pattern and it’s not fair. It’s not fair to the organizers, the people putting up the money, the promoters, the fans, especially. The fans wanna see good fights. Let’s go! It’s the fighter’s job to give the fight fans good fights. It’s teed up for everybody. Turki’s bringing out his wallet and paying everybody, and the least we can give him is good fights. Go out there and fight.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing