For the better part of the last four months, Ryan Garcia has been extremely active on social media. He's offered breast enhancement surgery and Brazilian butt lifts to women who desire them. Free of charge, he says. He's spent a great deal of time "exposing" sex trafficking and pedophilia in the entertainment industry. He's talked about dating celebrities.
It's been a lot of things at once, but not all that much about boxing and his fight against Devin Haney for the WBC super lightweight title on Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn that is available for purchase on PPV.com.
Garcia is a superbly talented boxer, a quick and powerful guy who split six amateur fights with Haney. He was probably at his best as a professional on July 16, 2022, when he knocked out Javier Fortuna. He took himself to the big-time after that fight when he called out Gervonta "Tank" Davis, and then insisted he would take no other interim fight when the proposal was made to him.
He did nearly everything right against Davis until fight night, and then it seemed maybe the gravity of the situation hit him. He wasn't the confident, authoritative boxer/puncher he'd been for most of his career. He didn't use his quickness nor his agility to move, create angles and make things difficult on Davis. He didn't throw as many punches as he should have and he collapsed into a heap the first time Davis seriously connected.
Now, getting knocked out by Tank Davis is no shame; he's one of the best in the business and has done the same thing to many others. It just seemed he waved the white flag a bit early.
Only he knows the truth; body shots to the liver are crippling, and fighters often cannot move for 10 or 15 seconds. Then, they get up and seem fine. If Garcia was hit with that type of shot, it might explain his reaction.
But there was this perception that perhaps Garcia realized he was in over his head, and that led to the early ending. But as soon as he took the Haney fight, the strange social media posts began, and it's concerning.
He insists he's worked hard, and it's easy to make 10 or 12 or 20 posts on Instagram and Twitter in a matter of moments. And Garcia says that those who think he hasn't prepared properly are wrong.
"The interpretations of other people, that's on them," Garcia said. "I know I am training hard. I am feeling great, looking good in the gym. People just need to look at the facts. I don't regret anything I said or did in the lead up to this fight. I'm just ready to kick ass on April 20. I know I can say a lot, but I know I need to show it."
Haney has been a polar opposite. As Garcia has filled his social media with posts that suggest he wasn't fixated on the bout and acted bizarrely at news conferences, Haney has been as serious as a heart attack. He's turned himself into one of the best fighters in the world after victories over Vasiliy Lomachenko and Regis Prograis, and he's fixated on taking out Garcia.
He's been as baffled by Garcia's social media antics as anyone, but he hasn't let it impact him. He's worked with his father/trainer, Bill, and prepared himself for an encore of his brilliant showing in December against Prograis in San Francisco.
He doesn't need the attention until it matters, when the first bell rings and for 36 minutes or less, the focus is on boxing and not on butt lifts or boob jobs.
"At the end of the day, Ryan Garcia is going to say what he is going to say," Haney said. "No matter what, I am going to do my job to be the very best Devin Haney I can be. Whichever version of Ryan shows up on [Saturday], I will be ready for him. Ryan Garcia is just another opponent to me. I am in competition with greatness. That is why I train so hard, that is why I stay so disciplined."
Given they split their six amateur bouts, and the eye test that tells you Garcia has the skills to be competitive if not win the fight, the odds tell what people really think of the way Garcia has prepared. At DraftKings sports book, Haney is a whopping -750 favorite, with Garcia at +500. Those are astronomical odds for the main event of a pay-per-view card.
Last week, ticket sales were so dismal that promoters and the arena made the extraordinary decision to cut prices. How much of that is attributable to the nonsense Garcia has spewed on social media is impossible to say with certainty, but we can say this: It didn't help a bit.
When you're asking big money for tickets and for the privilege to pay to see the fight, you need to put your best foot forward. In this case, people can see that one athlete is taking the event seriously and the other, to be kind, we're not sure about.
This should have been a massive pay-per-view with an intense world-wide intense. That it's not shaping up that way says all that needs to be said about the decisions Garcia has made since the bout was signed.
File photo
Devin Haney (R) will look to repeat his 2023 victory over Vasiliy Lomachenko when he meets Ryan Garcia on Saturday.