Ryan Garcia and his promoter Golden Boy Boxing are being sued by Fanmio in a federal court in California based on Garcia withdrawing from an exhibition fight in December 2024. The promoter of that event claims that Garcia must fulfill his commitment to the exhibition with kickboxer Rukya Anpo before he fights again.
Garcia had been suspended one year by the New York State Athletic Commission last April as a result of testing positive for a banned substance after his fight with Devin Haney. The exhibition scheduled for a PPV in December was to be held in Tokyo. But Garcia pulled out of the fight due to a wrist injury.
Garcia and his company King Ryan Enterprises (KRE) were being courted by DreamFactory Enterprises, a Japanese promotional company, about an exhibition fight in Tokyo. Notably, Garcia and his company entered into an agreement for the PPV bout. Fanmio was not a party to that Agreement although it argues it was a beneficiary to it since it would be promoting the fight.
Golden Boy was included in the lawsuit as the promoter of Garcia. A portion of the lawsuit reads:
Despite receiving payment and the promotion being well underway, Fanmio was deceived into organizing an event in which Ryan never intended to participate
Fanmio implicates Golden Boy in the lawsuit as promoting the newly made event where Garcia faces Rolly Romero in Times Square on May 2nd. Fanmio argues that the language of the contract with DreamFactory called for the fight to occur prior to any other fight involving Garcia.
Fanmio is no stranger to crossover events as it promoted the Jorge Masvidal-Nate Diaz boxing match which is currently in litigation in a dispute over money between Diaz and Fanmio. It did put on the Logan Paul-Floyd Mayweather fight which was considered a success.
The lawsuit attaches a Memorandum of Understanding between Fanmio and DreamFactory for the December 2024 PPV bout. It shows the two entities agreement to hold the event.
It also includes a November 2024 email from Golden Boy’s lawyers which indicates that it had not given approval to participate in the December 2024 exhibition in Tokyo.
According to the lawsuit, Garcia represented that he did not need Golden Boy approval to participate in the fight in Tokyo. However, the email from Golden Boy counsel stated otherwise. Garcia’s personal attorney, per the lawsuit, claims that the exhibition bout was not covered by his promotional contract with Golden Boy and thus could participate without their approval.
Payout Perspective:
The basic issue is that Fanmio invested money into promoting the Ryan Garcia exhibition fight and when he backed out due to injury, there was a belief that they would do it at a later date. That was not the case as the news of Garcia’s next fight on May 2nd is taking place in New York’s Times Square. Thus, Fanmio is out of its investment.
Obviously there are two sides to the story and certainly Garcia and Golden Boy will have their own versions of the story. Fanmio argues that Garcia and Golden Boy breached the contract because its clear that since the the suspension has been lifted for Garcia, he will be boxing again. And, its unlikely Fanmio will get the PPV event that it had invested in. These exhibition fights can be big money producers but also there’s a lot of risk involved. Fanmio is no stranger. Certainly DreamFactory may become involved in the lawsuit but since they are based in Japan, jurisdiction may be a tricky issue.
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