I’m really not sure where to go with this one. People are worried about Ryan Garcia.
He’s posted some insane shit and behaved erratically over the last 3-4 days, to say the least. There’s a certain edginess that’s required in boxing nowadays and I get that, but Ryan Garcia went into self-destruct mode. It’s not like we haven’t seen plenty of manufactured drama in this new age of social media and fight promotions (look no further than Jake Paul), but it’s gone well beyond that and Ryan Garcia has folks legitimately worried for his wellbeing. And with good reason. The best I can tell, what we have here is either a very fucked up scheme to generate buzz for his upcoming fight at best, or Ryan Garcia is legitimately off the deep end and needs to get straightened out. I can’t say for sure what’s going on but those two seem like the most likely scenarios. Whatever the case, it’s been extremely concerning.
I’m the furthest thing from a boxing guy and I admittedly don’t follow the intricacies of the sport. I am but a simple n00b, but even I know Garcia was a viral sensation not all that long ago and he’s amassed more than 10 million Instagram followers. By now most people on social media in general know who he is, even someone like myself that doesn’t follow the sport. He fought throughout his entire childhood and was 215-15 in his amateur career. All his early training videos went nuts because he’d do cool shit like punch very fast and practice blindfolded. He was dominant before going pro and the next big thing.
When he turned 17, he started fighting professionally, and over the last several years he’s built a record of 24-1 with 20 knockouts. His lone blemish came against Gervonta Davis who damn near ruptured his spleen with a body shot that would impale most normal humans. He bounced back this past December when he beat Oscar Duarte.
Again, I’m the furthest thing you’ll find from a boxing expert and I think any sport where the scoring is subjective is dumb, but this latest saga has grabbed my attention.
Garcia has been preparing for his bout against Devin Haney, the current WBC super lightweight champion, on April 7th. Of course there’s been bad blood and copious amounts of shit talk leading up to it, as expected. Lots of “I’ll fuck you up” and “no you won’t, you’re soft” exchanges whenever they meet in public. It’s all very performative, in my opinion, but that’s part of the build-up. In this day and age it wouldn’t be hyped up unless there was surreal social media beef and personal shots being fired. For a while, it was fun and games, mostly harmless online jabs and chaotic press conferences. Ryan Garcia was on a tear, going at Haney and whoever else came into the crosshairs, including Sean O’Malley (???).
He even went after my guy Louis Stevens!
In the last several days, things have taken a dark turn.
There was a pretty fucking disturbing post made to Ryan’s socials a few days ago.
His ex-wife posted and said she’d contacted him but that he’s not well and that all of this is real.
He posted an update video, confirming that he was alive, but it was vague and sorta confusing.
Since then, he’s shifted his attention from Devin Haney to… other things.
Christianity, Catholicism, and all manner of other controversial/conspiratorial shit. If you’re following him, it’s been one big “What The Fuck?” for the last 24 hours or so. He says he’s being “oppressed”. He claims he was taken to a place called Bohemian Grove (I had to look it up) by satanic elites in black robes. He said he “conjured up demons to tell them to fuck off”. He’s started in on the Pope being the Antichrist and he says he’s going to expose secrets. He’s posting videos speaking in tongues. He went full Alex Jones on the timeline. His past 3 days have been an absolute runaway train and he’s talking in circles.
As of yesterday evening he promised to tone things down and, oh I dunno, maybe talk about his upcoming fight instead of cult conspiracy theories and the end of the world. I’m all for a good Wikipedia deep dive, but he took it a little too far. My first thought was that he got hacked, but I’m not sure what the hell’s going on. Naturally, there’s been loads of speculation. Lots of fighters and people in the industry have asked him to cancel his upcoming fight and make sure he’s taking care of himself. It’s not unheard of for child stars turned- millionaires that are thrust into the spotlight to cede to the pressure and go a little cuckoo, Amanda Bynes-style. Again, I’m not sure what to make of all this, but it’s gotten to a supremely weird, uncomfortable spot. We’ve blown straight past fight promotion and generating drama into “substance abuse/mental