Posted on 03/04/2024
By: Sean Crose
The good news is that Ryan Garcia appears to be alive. The bad news is that the popular fighter’s behavior over the past week has begun to genuinely concern people.
“MARCH 3 SUNDAY 2024 we slit RG THROAT,” claimed a post on Garcia’s X (formerly Twitter) page on Sunday, “AND THRU HIM IN A BASKET NOBODY WILL FIND HIM.” This was followed by some satanic ramblings and a confusing video that didn’t show much of anything. Although there was a welcome report from Garcia’s father that his son was simply trolling ineffectively, Garcia’s ex wife, Andrea Celina, released a rather alarming statement on social media before the weekend had come to an end.
“If all my followers who are believers can you please pray for Ryan,” Celina stated. “We are not together and I’ve been in contact with him and he may seen fine but he is not. I know in my heart he is being heavily oppressed. This is not a troll, I’m genuinely concerned and so is all his family members. We are not part of any of this and want him to get better but this IS REAL. Pray for him.”
Garcia, who is scheduled to fight junior welterweight titlist Devan Haney on April 20th, has been leading boxing fandom on a very strange journey in the leadup to the fight. First, he claimed that he wanted the match to go down in Vegas after it was clear the bout would be held at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center. He was then showcased in a video smoking what seemed to be marijuana while laughing about how high he was.
Fast forward to last Thursday in Los Angeles, where Garcia showed up to a press conference to promote the Haney fight an hour late and atop a white horse. He then went on to publicly state that he liked to drink and smoke weed (though he argued he doesn’t do cocaine). But Garcia wasn’t done there. On Saturday, the young Californian posted, among other things, this statement regarding Jake Paul: “Okay enough, it’s on I’m going to have to do this! I’m going to end this JAKE PAUL BOXING THING. BRING IT ON JAKE IM DEAD FUCKING SERIOUS FUCK YOU! HIT MY TEAM UP.”
And then came Sunday’s post.
At this point it truly is hard to say whether Garcia is trying to hype the April 20th fight in what is now a highly inappropriate manner or if the fighter is legitimately suffering from some emotional issues before the entire world. Either way, here’s hoping the man attains some clarity.