Ryan Garcia: from his Mexican roots to his controversies on social media

When news broke that Ryan King Ry Garcia had missed weight by 3.2 pounds, their fight took a turn. The bad news for Garcia was that the WBC belt was no longer at stake, but despite that, the showdown was still held on Saturday.

García emerged victorious against Haney by majority decision: 112-112, 114-110, 115-109 in his favor.

The American of Mexican descent’s career quickly took off and became more well-known with Golden Boy Promotions, winning the WBC Silver lightweight and the WBC interim lightweight titles. Now he’s one of the young faces of boxing.

The WBC super lightweight title was at stake in the Haney fight, but he missed his chance. He had previously had a tough test against Gervonta Davis (29-0-0, 27 KO), who took away his undefeated record a year ago by knocking him out in the seventh round with a hook to the liver. Later he returned to winning ways by defeating Óscar Duarte (26-2-1, 21 KO) by KO in the eighth round.

Ryan Garcia’s controversies on social media

Garcia has been involved in quite a few controversies. In 2021 he admitted having suffered from depression that led him to alcohol abuse, and an injury kept him out of the ring for more than a year, as he had to undergo surgery for a fracture in his his right wrist.

One of his biggest and most recent controversies on social media was the one involving his ‘prediction’ of the Francis Scott Key Bridge tragedy in Baltimore, where almost a dozen people lost their lives.

X clarified that the video contained a digitally altered tweet about what Ryan García had written, who posted: “Something bad is going to happen in Baltimore, Maryland on March 26, 2024.” Lo and behold, the Dali careered into the Francis Scott Key bridge, destroying it.”

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After this, his followers started worrying about his mental health. Some denied that he had predicted the incidents in Baltimore, while others showed him their support and described him as a kind of “messenger of God.”

In the fight against Haney, it was reported that Garcia lost more than $600,000 of his purse besides the $1.5 million for their side bet after Garcia missed weight. After that, he published on his socials how little he cared about having missed weight on the scale, which ignited controversy among boxing fans. Despite his victory by majority decision, Garcia left the ring without Haney’s WBC super lightweight belt.