Ryan Garcia has a new legal issue on his hands ahead of his return to action in May.
The 26-year-old boxer and his promoters at Golden Boy are facing a new lawsuit filed in the U.S. district court in California on Thursday by Fanmio over a cancelled exhibition bout that was supposed to take place in Japan on Dec. 31, 2025.
Fanmio — a streaming platform that previously promoted a boxing match between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz — filed the lawsuit after Garcia dropped out of a scheduled matchup against Rukiya Anpo and then ultimately booked a completely different fight against Rolly Romero as part of the upcoming special event in Times Square in New York City in May.
The lawsuit claims that Garcia dropped out of the fight in Japan after Golden Boy allegedly stated that he was not allowed to compete for a different promotion while under contract with them.
“Specifically, Garcia agreed to participate in an exhibition fight in Japan — a fight which Fanmio agreed to promote and broadcast to millions of viewers through its worldwide pay-per-view streaming network,” the lawsuit states. “Thereafter, Golden Boy — threatened by Fanmio’s involvement — improperly used its influence over and contract with Garcia to prevent the match from happening.
“But not only was the boxing match not prohibited by the Golden Boy contract, but also the king’s ransom demanded by Golden Boy to allow the fight to go forward ultimately led to the boxer relying on a pre-existing injury and backing out of the fight — when Fanmio refused to agree to Golden Boy’s terms. This, however, was not until Fanmio had already incurred over $1 million in expenses working to promote the Dec. 31, 2024 fight.”
At the time Garcia was booked for the fight in Japan, he was still serving a one-year suspension after testing positive for a banned substance surrounding his match against Devin Haney. While the vast majority of athletic commissions around the world would also honor that suspension, Garcia didn’t face that same kind of scrutiny competing in an exhibition bout in Japan.
Unfortunately, the lawsuit claims that the entire promotion was built around Garcia’s return to the ring and now even if he actually followed through with the fight in Japan at a later date, the promotion would be completely different since he’s already scheduled to compete on May 2.
“Garcia could have fought in both the exhibition and the Times Square fight,” the lawsuit states. “Both Fanmio and Golden Boy and Garcia could have made substantial profits. However, Fanmio is left holding the bag — quite literally — for the sums that it had already expanded in order to promote the exhibitions, as well as the millions in lost profits it sustained as a result of Garcia and Golden Boy’s misconduct. Those costs had already been incurred prior to Garcia feigning injury in Dec. 2024.
“Upon information and belief, Garcia is being paid $40 million for the Times Square fight and his next fight through Golden Boy. Golden Boy is expected to see profits well in excess of that given Garcia’s popularity. On the other hand, in addition to losing out on the $1 million that Fanmio had already incurred promoting the exhibition, Fanmio will not take home any profits on a fight which will not take place — profits that could have totaled in excess of $10 million.”
The lawsuit is seeking damages against both Garcia and Golden Boy over the cancelled fight for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, tortious interference, fraudulent inducement, fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation and additional accusations laid out in the 38-page lawsuit.
