Ryan Garcia might be about to feature in a blockbuster pay-per-view event, but he has behaved more like a celebrity diva than an active fighter in the build-up to his fight with Devin Haney.
Garcia has gone viral in recent weeks – although not in a good way – as conspiracy theories, odd live streams with fans and ridiculous videos have surfaced.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) will be trying to capture the first world title of his career when he fights Haney for his WBC junior welterweight title on Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The contrast between promotions for Saturday’s matchup and that of Garcia’s other marquee fight – a loss to Gervonta Davis last April – couldn’t be starker. In the lead-up to Davis, Garcia came off as a hopeful underdog striving to prove a point. The past few weeks? He has behaved almost like a child with a short attention span who jumps between different attention-seeking behaviors.
In an interview with GQ Sports, Garcia and Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) sat down together to discuss themselves, one another and their fight.
“I don’t even need to box,” Garcia said. “I box because I love it – and I am that good. But I don’t need to box.”
Haney, who seems locked in for Saturday, appears to be fighting for all the right reasons. Garcia? It’s unclear what his motivation is. Although at times legacy seems to matter to him, there are others when it seems irrelevant to him. Garcia also comes off as being more fascinated, for better or worse, with entertaining and interacting with fans than most modern boxers. He has not steadfastly defined the terms of what he wants to achieve in boxing.
And nothing in the GQ interview provided any further clarity.
“If I retired today,” Garcia said, “I would live lavishly for the rest of my life.”
Garcia claims that his faith is guiding him, but few fighters – and far fewer devout ones – have caroused and carried on (at least publicly) the way Garcia has these past few weeks.
“I just want to do what God wants me to do and fulfill his will,” Garcia said when asked about his boxing legacy. “That is the only legacy that I am here to leave – and do – and if I am able to do that, my name will speak for itself.”
Whether Garcia knows it or not, his legacy will be written, to a certain degree, based on how he performs against Haney. With all the noise Garcia has made on social channels, interviews, press conferences and elsewhere, fans are eager for something real – Saturday’s fight.
His true motivations may just reveal themselves then.
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