Ryan Garcia spent most of his fight camp acting crazy and unpredictable, which not only generated legitimate concern for his well being, but also called into question his ability to compete against Devin Haney last weekend in Brooklyn.
Turns out it was all an act, planned months in advance.
“We have it pre-recorded, months ago,” Garcia told PBD Podcast. “What’d I say was gonna happen? I said, ‘I’m about to make sure everybody thinks I’m gonna go crazy. I’mma do this, I’mma do that.’ Watch, it’s gonna be called the ‘great escape.’ Like, I have it all documented. I was already planning it weeks and months behind.”
Manufacturing drama or embracing a specific persona to help generate pay-per-view (PPV) buys is not uncommon in combat sports. But peddling tales of sexual abuse and exploiting America’s mental health crisis in the name of fight promotion feels gross.
“I don’t know what made me come up with the idea, honestly,” Garcia admitted. “One day I just decided to just go all in, and just 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 with my nose (scrunch), and then I’d be like, ‘It’s just a tick.’ I had everything.”
I guess “everything” included his plan to miss weight, costing him a shot at Haney’s WBC Super Lightweight title. Or maybe that was a result of his pre-fighting drinking, which Garcia later admitted was not part of the act.
“What was real though is at times I did drink a little bit during camp because I like to drink,” Garcia said. “It 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. Then God always cleaned up everything I was doing.”
Everything except the disproportionate money line.
Garcia, 25, went on to defeat Haney but failed to capture the crown because of his weight miss. Nevertheless, the juice was worth the squeeze and Garcia will end up with nearly $50 million, or more, depending on whether or not you believe this tall tale.
For more news and notes from “Haney vs. Garcia” click here.