LAS VEGAS — The boxing world better enjoy Ryan Garcia now because his career might not last much longer.
The unbeaten 21-year-old is staring at boxing stardom as one of the brightest young talents in the sport. However, he already has plans for his exit from the sweet science on his mind.
Garcia, who will face Romero Duno (21-1) Saturday in the co-featured bout of Canelo Alvarez light heavyweight debut against Sergey Kovalev, believes that he will be ready to walk away from boxing in the next five years.
“I think I can accomplish everything I want to by the age of 26,” Garcia (18-0, 15 KOs) told DAZN while leaving his open workout amidst a mob of fans inside of the MGM Grand hotel. He's extraordinarily popular despite having just fought professionally for three years.
As he takes pictures with fans, signs autographs and shakes hands, it's evident that he's destined to be one of the biggest stars in the sport if he continues his winning ways. But none of that matters to Garcia at the moment as he finally escapes the swarm of screaming fans and the elevator doors to his hotel room close.
“Once I’m done, I’m done. I don’t want to come back ever again.”
How could he walk away from a sport that he seems destined to take over?
It's not exactly for the reasons you might think.
2019 has been a roller coaster year for the social media sensation. He saw the birth of his first child nine days before his TKO victory over Jose Lopez, launched his own YouTube series, landed a gig modeling for Abercrombie & Fitch’s ad campaign and secured a lucrative multi-fight agreement with Golden Boy Promotions.
On the other side, he was involved in a breakup with his daughter’s mother that he described over social media, had a fight on Mexican Independence Day weekend canceled at the weigh-in when his opponent was arrested on gun charges, and engaged in yet another public dispute with Golden Boy Promotions over how his career had been handled prior to signing the new deal.
He’s adamant that his up-and-down year has nothing to do with his plans to hang up the gloves in 2024. Instead, he says the decision is based on other endeavors that he’s excited to involve himself in.
“I want to be a film director, a designer and help kids with mental health issues,” Garcia said. “I want to create opportunities for everybody in the world that needs them. I feel like if I have the power to do that, why wouldn’t I? I want to help the world out a little bit.”
He’s already a star outside of the ring and believes he can leverage that into other opportunities. But he has some business to handle in the boxing ring before focusing full time on other business ventures.
“Once I fight Gervonta (Davis), Devin (Haney), (Vasiliy) Lomachenko and whoever else in this sport is big within that time frame, what else is there left for me? I don’t really want to fight guys that I’m supposed to beat,” he said. “It probably will be hard to stay motivated once I beat those fighters. That’s all I want to do and then move on to something even bigger than boxing.”
There are obvious hurdles for Garcia to overcome before he can consider fights with the names he mentioned. One of those hurdles, obviously, is Duno on Nov. 2, which will be streamed on DAZN. But there are network and promotional hurdles to deal with as Lomachenko and Davis are both with rival promoters and networks. Both of those fights will take some work to get made.
“I’m not going to force those fights, but when the time is right, it will happen,” Garcia said with confidence. “Everything in my life I have put my trust in God because he has put everything right where it needs to be.”
The one fight that appears to be easy to make and could put a cap on his career is a showdown with 20-year-old Devin Haney, who recently won the vacant WBC interim lightweight title. Garcia and Haney have history, with each having one three fights against the other during their days in the amateurs. They have paralleled each other with a strong social media following to go along with their impressive skills inside the ring.
It could certainly be one of the biggest fights in boxing as they continue to grow as stars, but Garcia isn’t interested in waiting all that long for a fight with Haney.
“One hundred percent, this fight can be the Mayweather-Pacquiao of this generation,” he said. “People are already talking about it. It may take a little while to put together and build up, or I can just say let’s do this now because I don’t care about being the A-side or anything. I just want to get it done.”
Five years isn’t a long time in boxing, and Garcia won’t even have hit his physical prime if he sticks to his guns to retire. Not to mention that retirement is a rather elusive concept in the sweet science.
“There’s a big chance (that I fight past 26),” Garcia said with a chuckle. “I’m just saying that I’ll be done at 26 right now but you never know what is going to happen.”