There’s going to be the temptation to say that Ryan Garcia was loopy like a fox through the lead-in to this Devin Haney struggle, that his bat-shit craziness was a shrewd ploy to throw the disciplined Haney off his recreation.
I don’t suppose that was the case in any respect.
Partly, as a result of Garcia was nonetheless just about saying the identical bunch of bat-shit loopy shit within the post-fight interview and within the instant aftermath of his majority choice victory on Saturday evening at Barclays Middle in Brooklyn.
In different half, as a result of, let’s be actual, Garcia regarded like canine shit. He was a stylistic mess and gave away large parts of the struggle to a seemingly hapless Haney, simply because he didn’t appear to know what to do or the place to go strategically. Even his vaunted left hook– which dropped Haney on three events and damage him each time it landed, beginning with the very first time it landed simply seconds into the bout– was sloppy as fuck. So, he clearly wasn’t making ready doggedly and furtively between social media bull periods, fine-tuning his model and dealing on pacing, footwork, and conditioning.
He simply managed to clip Haney and Haney couldn’t deal with it.
I’m not going to say that I predicted this, however Garcia buzzing and beating Haney didn’t shock me as a lot because it shocked others. In every bit I had written about this struggle, I discussed it as a definite risk. As a matter of reality, simply this previous Thursday in my Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack, I responded to an electronic mail with this:
“…Garcia has a greater probability of scoring the upset towards Haney than he did towards Gervonta Davis. There are just a few causes for that. Haney is stiffer, much less fluid than Tank– in the case of each model and mindset. Due to this fact, he’s extra more likely to be caught with one thing random. He’s additionally a fighter who could be very orthodox, once more, in each model and mindset. Fighters with orthodoxy drilled into them can typically be postpone by an unorthodox (or extra stylistically crude) opponent…Garcia might or might not have taken coaching critically for this struggle (my guess is…not), however he nonetheless has that rocket left hook of his, which, as I stated on this week’s Notes from the Boxing Underground column, I nonetheless take into account one among boxing’s finest single-shot weapons. If he lands that punch on the proper time/place, Haney might be in a nasty place and all that good coaching and health club self-discipline might be out the window. Briefly, Garcia has an actual puncher’s probability.”
The result of this struggle begs the query of simply how good Ryan Garcia might be if he took any of this boxing stuff actually and actually critically and if he devoted himself to constructing a strong base of fundamentals round that left hook (and, truly, a not-that-bad proper hand, too).
However good luck with that. Boxing folks have been questioning aloud about that since Ryan first hit the principle stage. It’s onerous to persuade somebody that what’s labored up to now, bringing tens of tens of millions of {dollars} and big-time fame, might work so significantly better. As I as soon as wrote: “Garcia was a star in his personal world properly earlier than preventing on any boxing essential stage and it’s robust coaching a star to be a fighter.” If the mauling by the hands of Tank Davis final yr didn’t function a “we gotta take this shit critically” get up name, nothing will– and positively this massive win received’t dissuade him from altering a factor. That ugly-ass and wildly ineffectual, self-cock-blocking shoulder roll is staying.
As I wrote within the post-fight recap after his KO loss to Davis: “However none of that [his plan to move up in weight after being stopped by Davis] will matter if Garcia doesn’t let himself be educated correctly. At 140 or past he’ll nonetheless be that man who’s proficient sufficient to beat the underside 99% of fighters, however who’ll flounder towards the highest 1%.”
The upset additionally brings up a ton of questions on Devin Haney, who, possibly, was confirmed to NOT be in that prime 1% talked about above.
Questions on his chin and his capacity to take an enormous punch have adopted him all through his profession. They’ll be even larger questions now.
There’ll be questions on his coaching as properly. Like, for example, if Haney and his father/coach Invoice Haney knew that Garcia’s solely actual weapon was the left hand, why did Devin look so completely unprepared for it– even when it was thrown broad and sloppy?
Haney may have so much to deal with internally as he picks up his profession and strikes on (I query whether or not he’ll push to make a rematch, even when there’s massive cash in doing so). He’s nonetheless WBC junior welterweight champ, since Garcia missed the 140 lb. restrict by three-and-a-quarter kilos, however he’ll should take a full step again when it comes to the sorts of fights he desires to be having.
Garcia, in the meantime, has been enabled and inspired to maintain being who he’s, whether or not we see that pretty much as good, unhealthy, foolish, corny, frustratingly dumb, or bat-shit loopy.
As I wrote on social media through the week, all the pieces about Ryan Garcia screams of phoniness– besides that left hand. However, in the end, all he wanted was just a few left fingers to win this struggle.
When the mud clears and the numbers begin leaking out, I think that jaded boxing folks might be very shocked at simply how profitable a manic Ryan Garcia was in pushing the gross sales of this occasion along with his continuous social media meltdowns and cringey teen-like angst. In a boxing world the place promoters don’t actually promote past press releases and press conferences for media, a lesson or two might be discovered in the case of utilizing social media to drive your occasion straight into the collective consciousness of the general public.
None of that is to say that Garcia did any of what he did with a advertising and marketing plan in thoughts. The child is a 14-year-old in a 25-year-old physique with a raging case of entitlement, a self-admitted case of ADD, and direct entry to tens of millions of individuals by way of social media. He did what comes naturally for somebody along with his property and points. Within the non-boxing world, there are an appallingly giant variety of “influencers” who do the very same shit, and worse. Within the youtube/social media offshoot of the leisure trade, the place garnering consideration straight interprets into cash, there’s an infinite military of jackasses leaping up and right down to get everybody’s consideration, whether or not they have a product to promote or not.
In Garcia’s case, he DOES have a product to promote and we’re going to search out out that his antics bought it properly.
All of that is new for boxing, which is perpetually sluggish to embrace change and seize at new concepts. However, in “King Ry,” we could also be seeing the game’s first new age celebrity within the age of social media. That concept – and all the pieces that goes with promoting fights to next-generation fans– might show to be extraordinarily distasteful for boxing old-timers and “purists” who’ve mastered the artwork of pearl clutching on the periphery of a blood sport. However, oh properly.
Prefer it or not, we’re caught with Ryan Garcia.
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