Ryan Garcia's Golden Boy contract comes between Conor Benn negotiations

Veteran journalists in the boxing business know that no fight is official until a date and venue are announced. And even then, things can get shaky.

There's so much time, effort, and, most importantly, money that goes into a boxing promotion that until a date and venue are secured, all of the talk about a potential fight happening is just that. Talk.

This week, Golden Boy Promotions sent Zuffa Boxing, TKO Group, Paramount, and Sela a cease-and-desist letter, ordering them to stop talking to its fighter Ryan Garcia about a fight with fellow welterweight Conor Benn, Boxing Scene reported, citing sources familiar with the situation.

The previous day, Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya was asked about Garcia vs. Benn. He said, "There's no update," but that he had heard "rumblings and rumors," and no one had spoken to him about the fight.

"We work with every promoter out there, even if it has to be Dana White and Zuffa. As much as I hate it, let's go! Why not? Because the fighters want this fight. Ryan wants this fight; he wants to fight Conor Benn."

Garcia went on Jimmy Fallon weeks ago to break the news he would be fighting Conor Benn in Las Vegas on Sept. 12. To make an announcement that big in front of that large an audience suggests Garcia and his team had been in deep negotiations with Zuffa.

But tellingly, he did not name a venue for the fight.

His interview this week made it clear that Oscar and Golden Boy had been left out of the negotiations. But that had also been clear for some time.

So what changed between then and now?

Golden Boy takes action to get ahead of Dana White announcement

According to Boxing Scene, De La Hoya caught wind that Dana White would be announcing the Conor Benn vs Ryan Garcia fight at the White House UFC 328 MMA event on Sunday. This letter could throw a big monkey wrench in those plans.

De La Hoya attorney Ricardo P. Cestero of Greenberg Glusker says that Golden Boy has not "participated in any financial dealings or related negotiations they are obligated to participate in," as part of their deal with Garcia's King Ryan Promotions, Boxing Scene says.

Garcia is also "obligated" to fight on DAZN, which just re-signed Golden Boy to a broadcast deal earlier this year, not Paramount+, where Zuffa broadcasts its fights.

Complicating all of this is Turki Alalshikh.

SURJ Sports Investment, a sports investment company set up by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), holds a reported 10% stake in DAZN. The PIF also set up Sela, an entertainment, concert and events company that holds a 60% stake in Zuffa Boxing (TKO Group holds the other 40%). As the chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, both Sela and SURJ are controlled by Alalshikh.

Alalshikh also owns The Ring, both the magazine and the boxing promotional company, and The Ring frequently puts its cards on DAZN.

Ryan Garcia and Golden Boy have a history of contract strife

On the day the cease-and-desist letter was reported, Benn and Garcia were engaged in the type of social media back-and-forth you see when a fight is being promoted.

This is at least the third time in the past seven that Garcia and Golden Boy haven't seen eye to eye on their agreement.

Garcia had said he wanted to get out of his Golden Boy seven years ago, in a relationship that was described at the time as "fractured beyond repair." But inexplicably, that same year, Garcia signed a multiyear extension with Golden Boy.

That was in 2019, and the deal was reportedly a five-year deal that was "one of the most lucrative deals in history for a boxing prospect," Golden Boy said.

While a five-year extension would suggest that Garcia should be a free agent, Garcia still had "a couple of years left" on his existing agreement. And who knows how his year-long PED suspension plays into his contract terms.

Garcia challenged his Golden Boy contract again in 2023, four years after the initial challenge, claiming that the promotional company violated the terms of his agreement and citing California and federal law that he said invalidated the contract.

The extension Garcia signed in 2019 mandates that any contract disputes go to mediation before court.

"It's business as usual," De La Hoya told ESPN back then. "We have a couple of pending issues that should not impede any type of progress moving forward. I truly feel that we're going to get this behind us and then move on with his career."

Related: On Shakur Stevenson, Ryan Garcia and "weight bullying"

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This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 3:16 PM.