Ryan Garcia has a brand new authorized difficulty on his arms forward of his return to motion in Might.
The 26-year-old boxer and his promoters at Golden Boy are dealing with a brand new lawsuit filed within the U.S. district courtroom in California on Thursday by Fanmio over a cancelled exhibition bout that was purported to happen in Japan on Dec. 31, 2025.
Fanmio — a streaming platform that beforehand promoted a boxing match between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz — filed the lawsuit after Garcia dropped out of a scheduled matchup in opposition to Rukiya Anpo after which in the end booked a very totally different combat in opposition to Rolly Romero as a part of the upcoming particular occasion in Occasions Sq. in New York Metropolis in Might.
The lawsuit claims that Garcia dropped out of the combat in Japan after Golden Boy allegedly acknowledged that he was not allowed to compete for a unique promotion whereas underneath contract with them.
“Particularly, Garcia agreed to take part in an exhibition combat in Japan — a combat which Fanmio agreed to advertise and broadcast to hundreds of thousands of viewers by its worldwide pay-per-view streaming community,” the lawsuit states. “Thereafter, Golden Boy — threatened by Fanmio’s involvement — improperly used its affect over and contract with Garcia to forestall the match from occurring.
“However not solely was the boxing match not prohibited by the Golden Boy contract, but additionally the king’s ransom demanded by Golden Boy to permit the combat to go ahead in the end led to the boxer counting on a pre-existing damage and backing out of the combat — when Fanmio refused to conform to Golden Boy’s phrases. This, nonetheless, was not till Fanmio had already incurred over $1 million in bills working to advertise the Dec. 31, 2024 combat.”
On the time Garcia was booked for the combat in Japan, he was nonetheless serving a one-year suspension after testing optimistic for a banned substance surrounding his match in opposition to Devin Haney. Whereas the overwhelming majority of athletic commissions world wide would additionally honor that suspension, Garcia didn’t face that very same sort of scrutiny competing in an exhibition bout in Japan.
Sadly, the lawsuit claims that the complete promotion was constructed round Garcia’s return to the ring and now even when he really adopted by with the combat in Japan at a later date, the promotion can be utterly totally different since he’s already scheduled to compete on Might 2.
“Garcia might have fought in each the exhibition and the Occasions Sq. combat,” the lawsuit states. “Each Fanmio and Golden Boy and Garcia might have made substantial income. Nonetheless, Fanmio is left holding the bag — fairly actually — for the sums that it had already expanded in an effort to promote the exhibitions, in addition to the hundreds of thousands in misplaced income it sustained on account of Garcia and Golden Boy’s misconduct. These prices had already been incurred previous to Garcia feigning damage in Dec. 2024.
“Upon info and perception, Garcia is being paid $40 million for the Occasions Sq. combat and his subsequent combat by Golden Boy. Golden Boy is anticipated to see income properly in extra of that given Garcia’s recognition. Then again, along with shedding out on the $1 million that Fanmio had already incurred selling the exhibition, Fanmio won’t take house any income on a combat which won’t happen — income that would have totaled in extra of $10 million.”
The lawsuit is searching for damages in opposition to each Garcia and Golden Boy over the cancelled combat for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, tortious interference, fraudulent inducement, fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation and extra accusations laid out in the 38-page lawsuit.
