Ryan Garcia caused plenty of concern over his health and mental condition prior to pulling off his big win over Devin Haney.
And while some have called this a spectacular display of mind games during the build-up week leading to a fight, Garcia says this fight proved that fans and pundits should not be overly concerned about fighter behavior — especially on the Internet.
“This is why people need to stop believing everything on the Internet and stop living in a false reality,” Garcia said at the post-fight press conference. “At the end of the day, there’s a lot of real s*** going on. The last thing you should worry about is a kid acting crazy on the Internet. Real s*** is going on in the world. Open your eyes.
“I put my reputation on the line; had everyone thinking I was crazy. Who’s the crazy one now?”
Garcia had raised eyebrows in the lead-up to the fight due to some of the comments that he had made, as well as his weight miss and on-stage drinking during the weigh-ins.
As it turns out, Garcia claims to have been drinking daily as the fight with Haney moved closer.
“I don’t give a f*** what people say about me. I walked through the fire, and still held it down, and still beat f****** Devin Haney, and still drank every day,” Garcia said. “Drank every single night, went out on the first Monday, and the Tuesday, and what happened? I won.
“Not necessarily am I proud of that, but I’m just saying, it was a statement to show you, you guys can’t really f*** with me. I do whatever I want.”
Garcia Has ‘Vision’ Of Moving Up To 154 & Knocking Out Fundora Now comes speculation as to what could happen next for Garcia, with thoughts ranging from a rematch with Haney to a second dance with the only man to hand him a loss in professional boxing, WBA (Regular) lightweight world champion Gervonta Davis.
Garcia, however, isn’t thinking about a rematch with Davis, adding that he thinks “Tank” will lose his title in June when he faces Frank Martin.
“I don’t think Tank is going to beat Frank Martin,” Garcia said. “But if he did, he wouldn’t fight me, because I’m moving up. I’m not doing 140. I’m going to 147; I can’t make f****** 140.”
Garcia’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, added that the only possible way for a rematch with Davis to happen would be a 143 or 144-pound catchweight contest. “Tank” and Garcia’s first fight took place at a catchweight of 135 pounds.
Garcia himself has a vision to face a different fighter at a different weight class in Sebastian Fundora, who recently upset Tim Tszyu to capture the WBO and WBC light middleweight championships.
“I don’t know why. I just feel like I can knock him out,” Garcia said. “I know that’s really, really random, but…I fought guys that big before and I’ve knocked them out in sparring.”
