Oscar De La Hoya believes that Ryan Garcia could become the best lightweight fighter in the world.
After two weeks of delays to avoid a purse bid for the bout between Garcia and Luke Campbell, the two parties have agreed terms to schedule a fight.
As Golden Boy's chairman and chief executive, De La Hoya was keen to talk up the proposed bout.
“Ryan Garcia versus Luke Campbell is a done deal,” De La Hoya told BoxingScene.com.
“This is a very important fight, so negotiations took some time. Nevertheless, we are really looking forward to promoting this fight.”
Garcia vs. Campbell is a fight that has been anticipated since it was ordered by the World Boxing Council in July. That meant that the undefeated Garcia had to choose between Campbell and Emmanuel Tagoe as his next opponent.
A win against Campbell brings with it the reward of an interim title, while a match with Tagoe would have been a WBO title eliminator to then fight the winner of Vasiliy Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez.
Garcia elected to face Campbell, which led to protracted negotiations between Golden Boy and Matchroom Boxing to set up a fight for DAZN.
Matchroom head Eddie Hearn announced last week: “I’m very sorry to give the media the bad news again, but we finally reached an agreement.
“Just to give a bit of clarity: We had some issues around the contract that we sent to Golden Boy, that they weren’t happy with. They’re well within their right to do that. We’ve worked it out, we only had 24 hours to work it out.
“The fight will take place in America. Robert and Eric Gomez (president of GBP) will work on the date, which looks like it will be middle-to-end of November. Eric will announce that in due course.”
De La Hoya acknowledged the experienced Briton represents a tough challenge, but one that Garcia can negotiate to demonstrate his potential.
“A test of this magnitude will show everyone that Ryan Garcia has what it takes to be the best lightweight in the world,” he told BoxingScene.com.
“Details are still being figured out, but we know that we will stage it on the West Coast. We will make a full announcement in the coming weeks.”