Notebook: Ryan Garcia lands national endorsement deal with Gatorade

WBA stripping spree; Ring City sets 2 main events

The year is only a month old but it’s already been a big one for Ryan Garcia.

On Jan. 2, Garcia rallied from a second-round knockdown to knock out Luke Campbell to win the vacant WBC interim lightweight title. In recent days he has been connected to the very real possibility of a fight with legendary eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao for an event that would undoubtedly draw serious interest given the popularity of both fighters.

And on Friday, sports drink Gatorade – as mainstream a product as there is – announced that is has signed Garcia to a national endorsement deal.

“Gatorade is known for fueling the best athletes in the world, which is why the brand is adding boxing phenom Ryan Garcia to its roster of athletes,” the company said in making the announcement. “Garcia is the first professional boxer Gatorade has signed to a national deal in the U.S. At only 22 years old, Garcia joins a roster full of other young superstar talent like Fernando Tatis Jr., Matthew Wolff, Zion Williamson, Jayson Tatum, and Sydney McLaughlin, among others.”

Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs), of Victorville, California, who is enormously popular, boasting more than 8.4 million followers on Instagram, is excited by a deal that will certainly bring him even more exposure.

“A few years ago, I posted on social (media) and tagged Gatorade to get their attention, so being the first professional boxer to sign a national deal in the U.S. with them is a dream that turned into a reality,” Garcia said. “Gatorade has been studying and working with the best athletes in sports for decades, many of which I admire, and I’m excited to bring positive attention to the sport of boxing.”

Gatorade believes Garcia, with his legion of young fans and star power, is an ideal spokesman.

“We pride ourselves on fueling all types of athletes, and those who compete in combat sports, a world we’ve supported for many years, are no exception," said Jeff Kearney, Gatorade’s global head of sports marketing. “Bringing Ryan on at the national level in the U.S. only strengthens that commitment, and it is a testament to his talent and work ethic.”

WBA goes on stripping spree

The wretched WBA went on a stripping spree in three weight classes, where the sanctioning body already had multiple titleholders.

Welterweight: It stripped legendary eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao of his welterweight “super” title and designated him a “champion in recess.” It also elevated Yordenis Ugas from secondary titlist to “super” titleholder. Pacquiao won the “super” title by decision over Keith Thurman in July 2019 but has not fought since because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the WBA stripped him anyway without even ordering a mandatory bout.

Heavyweight: Mahmoud Charr was stripped of the “regular” heavyweight title and made “champion in recess.” He was due to fight interim titlist Trevor Bryan in a long overdue mandatory fight on Friday night on promoter Don King’s card at the Seminole Hard Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. King won the fight for a shockingly high $2 million at a purse bid. After weeks of issues and accusations from both sides about a fight few believed would actually happen it was canceled because Charr was unable to come to the United States from Germany. He had not secured the proper visa needed to fight here. Charr has not fought since claiming the vacant belt by decision over Alexander Ustinov in November 2017.

In addition, the WBA sanctioned Bryan to fight former world titlist Bermane Stiverne for the vacant secondary title in Friday night’s main event. The Bryan-Stiverne winner will be mandated to face Charr within 120 days, according to the resolution the WBA issued on the matter.

“At this moment he has more than three years without stepping into the ring,” the WBA wrote about Charr in its resolution. “The organization understands that Charr is willing to fight but a cause beyond his control prevented him from making the defense scheduled for this week. On the other hand, obtaining U.S. visas, one of the obstacles he had, is a situation beyond the control of the World Boxing Association. Now, as champion in recess, Charr will be able to solve his legal and business situation and be ready to fight in the coming months. Now Bryan, WBA interim champion, and his representative company Don King (Productions), made the request to face Stiverne, an opponent who meets the requirements to fight for the championship. The winner must fight Charr by May 30, 2021. In the event of a draw, Bryan will face Charr before the aforementioned date.”

Cruiserweight: The WBA stripped secondary titlist Beibut Shumenov, who has been idle since winning the vacant belt in July 2018, and elevated Ryad Merhy from interim titlist to secondary titlist. It ordered Merhy to face former titleholder Yunier Dorticos next. Merhy and Dorticos have 30 days to negotiate a deal or it will go to a purse bid with a 75-25 split in Merhy’s favor.

Shumenov was scheduled to defend the belt on against Raphael Murphy on the Bryan-Stiverne undercard Friday night, but he pulled out on Jan. 22. Merhy’s team was threating litigation against the WBA because Shumenov was being permitted to fight Murphy instead of a massively overdue mandatory defense against Merhy.

Two Ring City USA main events set

Ring City USA announced the 10-round the main events for its first two cards of 2021 (NBC Sports, 9 p.m. ET), and that each will take place in Puerto Rico.

On March 4, junior middleweights Serhii Bohachuk (18-0, 18 KOs), 25, of Ukraine, and Brandon Adams (22-3, 14 KOs), 31, of Los Angeles, a former middleweight world title challenger, will fight in a bout rescheduled from Dec. 3. Bohachuk was sidelined from that date after testing positive for Covid-19.

“I am sorry we couldn’t do it in December, but now people are talking even more about this fight,” Bohachuk said. “I will put on another exciting show for the fans.”

Adams fought late replacement Sonny Duversonne on Dec. 3 and knocked him out in the second round.

“I’m looking forward to returning to Ring City in March and showing more growth when Serhii and I finally get to step into the ring in Puerto Rico,” said Adams, winner of “The Contender” realist series in 2018.

The second card will take place March 18 and, as Fight Freaks Unite reported earlier this week, the main event will match former junior lightweight world titlist Alberto Machado (22-2, 18 KOs), 30, of Puerto Rico, and prospect Hector Tanajara (19-0, 5 KOs), 24, of San Antonio, in a lightweight bout.

“It has been a sad and forced rest due to the Coronavirus but, for me, my body needed this rest. I am excited that after four years I will return to fight again at home in Puerto Rico,” Machado said. “Hector Tanajara, Jr. is a great fighter who seeks to break through in the lightweight division as well. I hope he comes ready and that 135 (pounds) has my space saved because I belong here and on March 18 it will be demonstrated.”

Tanajara will be facing the most notable opponent of his career and ending a 14-month layoff.

“I’m excited to get back in the ring,” Tanajara said. “It has been a little over a year and I’ve been training hard this whole time staying ready for whoever. We finally got an opponent and I’m ready to show the world who I am and what I can do with the top guys in the division.”

Quick hits

The rematch between heavyweights Robert Helenius (30-3, 19 KOs), 37, a Finland native fighting out of Sweden, and popular Polish fighter Adam Kownacki (20-1, 15 KOs), 31, of Brooklyn, New York, is tentatively scheduled to headline a Premier Boxing Champions card on Fox on March 6, according to a source with knowledge of the plans. Kownacki, being positioned for a title shot against then-titleholder Deontay Wilder, was a big favorite when he and Helenius met March 7, 2020, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Helenius took a beating for the first three rounds but turned it around and stunningly stopped Kownacki in the fourth round for a major upset.

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Weights from Los Angeles for Saturday night’s Premier Boxing Champions card on Fox:  Caleb Plant 167.6 pounds, Caleb Truax 167.8 (for Plant’s super middleweight world title); Michael Coffie 270.2, Darmani Rock 261; Joey Spencer 158, Isiah Seldon 156.6; Fernando Molina 136.4, James De Herrera 137; Rances Barthelemy 142.8, All Rivera 143.2; Atif Oberlton 177.4, Nathan Sharp 177.6; Brandyn Lynch 158.2, Mark Hernandez 160; Daniel Garcia 131.4, Jose Delgado 130.

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Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn announced that his Feb. 13 and Feb. 20 cards (DAZN in the U.S. and most of the rest of the world, Sky Sports in the U.K.) will take place at the SSE Arena, Wembley in London. That’s the same venue where Matchroom put on a series of events this past fall. The fight lineups were previously announced with Feb. 13 headlined by Josh Warrington, who recently vacated his featherweight title, taking on Mauricio Lara and Feb. 20 topped by the rescheduled fight between European welterweight champion David Avanesyan against Josh Kelly.

Show and tell

The annual Topps Heritage baseball card set pays homage to the style of a past year of Topps baseball cards. The 2020 set was designed to look like the 1971 card set with its distinct black borders, bright colors and wild fonts. In the set is a 15-card “News Flashbacks” subset depicting major events from 1971, including the opening of Walt Disney World, the opening of the first Starbucks, the finale of the Ed Sullivan Show, Evel Knievel jumping his motorcycle over cars and, of course, the “Fight of the Century” — the epic first showdown between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship. I hadn’t realized this card was in the set until recently. When I did, of course, I had to buy a few. It’s a cool card and well worth the $1.50 apiece they cost me.

Ryan Garcia photo: Tom Hogan/Golden Boy