Ryan Garcia is either a total basketcase or an absolute genius. Either way, he’s got millions more in the bank account because of it.
After spending the last few months making fans, pundits, and most importantly, his opponent think he had suffered a complete and total mental breakdown, Garcia revealed that he had seemingly pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes ahead of his career-best performance against Devin Haney in NYC.
For months, Garcia appeared to be a man on the edge, making some downright disturbing allegations as he was preparing for his title clash with the WBC super lightweight champion. Even the Nevada State Athletic Commission stepped in, ordering a mental health evaluation on the 25-1 fighter before he was allowed to show up at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
By now, we all know that Garcia not only showed up, but he showed out, knocking down Devin Haney three times en route to a stunning majority decision victory. Unfortunately, Garcia went into the bout three-pounds over the 140-pound limit making him ineligible to win the WBC title. However, it appears as though becoming a world champion was never a concern for ‘King Ryan.’ Winning was the only goal, no matter the cost.
During a recent appearance on the PBD Podcast with Patrick Bet-David, Ryan Garcia claimed that his erratic behavior over the last several weeks was nothing more than a work of fiction — a narrative seemingly designed to throw off his opponent and the sportsbooks.
“We have it pre-recorded, months ago,” Garcia said. “What’d I say was gonna happen? I said, ‘I’m about to make sure everybody thinks I’m gonna go crazy. I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna 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. ”
“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.’ I did make adjustments, but what was real though is at times I did drink a little bit during camp. Because I like to drink.”
Ryan Garcia Lays it on the sportsbooks
As Ryan Garcia’s behavior became more bizarre with each passing day, his odds of winning the fight dropped drastically on sportsbooks. Seeing an opportunity to capitalize, ‘King Ryan’ reportedly placed a $2 million bet on himself to win at +600, meaning he walked away with $12 million in addition to his fight purse. All told, Garcia left ‘The Big Apple’ with $50 million in his bank account.
“.. It kept unraveling itself,” Garcia said. “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. I felt like on one side I had the enemy pushing me to do certain things and then I had God and it was just like, no matter what happened, God always made it right.”
With several potential fights at his disposal, Ryan Garcia is already cooking up some ideas on how to hype up his next appearance inside the squared circle.
“Maybe I’ll go into an I’m super disciplined narrative or maybe I just act even crazier,” he concluded. “Maybe I’ll take it a step too far or maybe I make it look like it’s a step too far. Who knows.”