Midnight Mania: ‘Misunderstood’ Garcia Heading To Rehab

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Boxing superstar Ryan Garcia is clearly in a bad way.

Fortune and fame are great, but it’s become more than apparent that “King” has some issues to sort through. It’s difficult to even describe his last six months as a rise and fall, because even in the lead up to his high-profile victory over Devin Haney — since overturned to a “No Contest” — there were plenty of troubling signs of substance abuse and general mental health concerns.

Chugging a beer at weigh-ins is not the sign of an athlete with his head on straight.

On Thursday, the suspended boxer shot himself in the foot once more with a wildly racist and uncomfortable rant, in which Garcia used the N word repeatedly and tackled subjects like George Floyd and pedophilia. Subsequently, he was quickly expelled from the WBC, though there could be longer term consequences for his words as well.

Since then, Garcia has issued a lengthy apology. Simultaneously, he “takes all responsibility” while also claiming to be “misunderstood.” Really, the entire apology is a strange jumble of words (read in full below), but the most important bit came in a separate social media post that read, “I’m going to rehab, btw.”

“I take all responsibility for my words. I’m misunderstood, I just got a lot of trauma. And It’s been a tough couple of months as everyone can tell but I AM SORRY. I struggle with substance abuse and it hard for me with everything going on. I actually love black people no cap which is why I’m actually said I offended all my black family and friends. This sucks but all I can do is be better and stop using stupid words and letting some people in my circle hype me up. Sorry everyone that I offended. I still stand on stopping black on black crime And that I hate pedo’s so that will always remain something I stand on.”

While that was the main apology, Garcia continued to rant on social media afterward. Primarily, he complained about other boxers saying questionably racist phrases, like Tim Bradley calling him a “zoo animal” or Devin Haney’s claim that he’ll “never lose to a white boy.”

Certainly, there’s room for off-color trash talk in combat sports, but Garcia found and crossed the line. Hopefully, he’s telling the truth about his planned rehab stint and can get the help he needs.

Insomnia

Being able to fight often is an overlooked benefit to effortlessly knocking out all your opposition.

Rear naked choke will always be king, but I expect d’arce to rise above armbar on a long enough timeline.

Some interesting wrestling from Bantamweight prospect Rei Tsuruya:

A technical dive into lead hand feinting and movement from the open stance:

Based solely on this clip, I’m thinking Portuguese and Czech don’t have a ton of crossover.

Heavyweight Jon Jones moving some weight and getting his cardio in:

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Kholmirzaev was able to transition belly down so quickly because his opponent failed to put pressure into him and stack. Slick!

Right low kick and jump knee is an underrated double threat.

A trade of right hands, but Aoyagi closed the door with his left hook afterward.

Random Land

Views from above.

Midnight Music: Soul, 1972

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.