Ryan Garcia may not yet be a world champion, but the 22-year-old believes his immense popularity on social media is the reason he should be the "A-side" in a potential showdown against WBA (Super) super featherweight champion Gervonta Davis, WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney or unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez Jr.
"I should be the A-side in every fight," Garcia told DAZN News. "There is not one person in the lightweight division who has more of a following than me."
Garcia will face Luke Campbell on Dec. 5 for the WBC interim lightweight championship at the Fantasy Springs Resort in Indio, Calif., and streamed live on DAZN. Over the past few weeks, the social media star has watched Lopez become a unified champion with a remarkable performance against Vasiliy Lomachenko and witnessed Davis’ brutal knockout of Leo Santa Cruz go viral. While impressed by the performances of his boxing peers, he doesn’t believe either of them — or Haney, who faces Yuriorkis Gamboa this weekend on DAZN — should get top billing over him in a fight.
"When it comes to the business of boxing, you can't take anything personally, even if you are the 'undisputed' champion,” Garcia said. "Whoever the most popular fighter is at the moment has to be the A-side."
While Garcia respects the argument that a champion should be the A-side of a fight, he disagrees, considering that the job of a promoter is to sell tickets and pay-per-views and, ultimately, get as many eyeballs on a fight as possible.
"You have all these fighters who are champions, but they can’t put butts in seats," Garcia said. "They should be happy that they are fighting a guy who does have fans to help you make the money you wouldn’t have made yourself. Be blessed that you are fighting guys with a lot of fans."
The combined Instagram followers of Davis (2.4 million), Haney (795,000) and Lopez (364,000) don’t amount to half of Garcia’s total (7.5 million), so it is difficult to argue against his ability to draw attention to a fight.
"Tank (Davis) is up there but he’s not even close to me," Garcia said. "But he is the guy who would make a megafight in boxing right now and (Showtime Sports executive) Stephen Espinoza made it clear that I was the guy to fight. (Top Rank CEO) Bob Arum said the same thing about Lopez.
"I am that person and that’s just how it is."