Ryan Garcia enjoyed a very successful outing on Saturday night when he beat Devin Haney. Following a tense and at times concerning build-up to the fight, it was finally all worth it to see Garcia deliver on the night. With everything said and done, Ryan has finally revealed how his elaborate plan came to be.
For those unaware, Ryan Garcia recently had his seventh showdown with Devin Haney, their first on the big stage, at the Barclays Center in New York. Coming into the fight, there was a lot of talk regarding Garcia’s mental condition, owing to his problematic behavior. However, on the night, the boxer debunked all the allegations against him, proving that he was in fact taking the fight seriously, contrary to what Haney suggested.
In what was easily one of his biggest career wins, Ryan delivered a respectable performance against a very high-level foe. Following the win, Ryan cleared the air and dismissed all the talks about him not being mentally stable. As such, what some had suspected all along turned out to be true, and Garcia played an elaborate ruse just to throw off the people and his opponent.
Ryan Garcia finally reveals the truth behind the promotion for the Devin Haney fight
In his post-fight interview, one of the first things that Ryan Garcia said was, “Come on guys, you really thought I was crazy? You done lost your own mind!” Since then, the boxer has seemingly reverted to normal, as he was before the announcement of the fight. With that out of the way, the 25-year-old has since come out and spoken about his meticulous planning and promotion for the fight.
Just after the win against Devin Haney, Garcia appeared on the PBD Podcast with Patrick Bet-David and shared what really went down in the leadup to the fight:
“We have it pre-recorded, months ago. What’d I say was gonna happen? I said, ‘I’m about to make sure everybody thinks I’m gonna go crazy.’ .. Like, I have it all documented. I was already planning it weeks and months behind.”
“I don’t know what made me come up with the idea, honestly. One day I just decided to just go all in, and commit to the plan that I had. And I was not gonna budge for nobody.”
“.. I was acting like, sporadic. Like just crazy. Faces, I would do this(scrunch) with my nose, and then I’d be like, ‘It’s just a tick.’ What was real though is at times I did drink a little bit during camp. Because I like to drink.”
“.. It(promo for Haney fight) kept unraveling itself. If I’m being quite honest, it was more of a- it wasn’t so much my ideas, it was more so just wisdom coming from God. And then I just made adjustments as I went.”
“I would have these strong urges. Like [signs] from the Holy Spirit to do this, do that. And then God always cleaned up everything I was doing.”
As such, Ryan Garcia claims that he was guided by God to create a smokescreen for his preparations. On the night, the boxer did not look like he had missed a beat in training as some of his footage suggested. Not only that, but people from Ryan’s team have since come out speaking about how difficult it was to plan and execute some of his plans. Regardless, Garcia and his team put on a very compelling act that had many people fooled.
A lot of fighters and experts doubted Ryan Garcia’s mental state before the fight
Ahead of the fight, a lot of fans, fighters, and experts showed genuine concern for Ryan Garcia. Hailing him as a top prospect, many felt as though the boxer had wasted away his potential to drugs and alcohol like his promoter Oscar De La Hoya. With troubling posts on social media, including some about his own demise, followed by the love bombing of his former flames and other love interests, Ryan did it all.
As a result, Chael Sonnen and others felt that Ryan Garcia had gone off the deep end and could not, by any means be faking his demeanor. Just days before the fight, renowned boxing trainer Teddy Atlas called for the New York State Athletic Commission to conduct a thorough mental examination of the fighter, and even wanted the fight to be called off. Similarly, George Groves, Shakur Stevenson, George Kambosos Jr., and Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz all predicted Garcia to lose.
Further, in the post-fight press conference, Henry Garcia, who was with his son Ryan through the entire buildup labeled Paulie Malignaggi, Timothy Bradley, Chris Algieri, Steve Kim, and even Mario Lopez as ‘pieces of sh*t’ for doubting Ryan Garcia. That said, Henry will have felt a lot of pride in his son’s success not just inside the ring, but also in his elaborate ploy that clearly sent many people in the wrong direction.