Ryan Garcia’s shadow boxing skills appear not to have gone down well with his trainer, Derrick James.
Garcia is preparing to face Devin Haney on April 20 in the biggest fight of his career. A victory gives Garcia his first world title, with the chance to win the WBC Junior Welterweight Belt. Much has been said about Garcia’s mental health coming into the fight. He admitted smoking and drinking weed after telling a fan he was ‘high as f**k.’
The boxer has also been posting on his social media extensively on various topics ranging from trafficking to attacking Logan Paul and KSI’s PRIME drink for allegedly causing harm. That resulted in the New York State Athletic Commission requesting a mental health evaluation. Garcia maintained that he was fine, even threatening to sue the organization.
“I’m gonna sue the NYC commission and I’m saying this why They’re trying to challenge me for a mental evaluation. I said, ‘OK, what is your premises [sic] for the mental evaluation?’ ‘Well, your tweets and posts.’ I said, ‘Is it not my U.S. constitutional right to have free speech?’
“So, because I’m tweeting what I’m tweeting, that’s premises [sic] for a mental evaluation? That’s curious.Now you’re trying to mess with my constitutional rights. Now I’m going to sue you. I’m going to sue for defamation of character actually,” Garcia said
Garcia And Haney’s Training
But his training has received a mixed response, and James does not look pleased. The following clip shows Garcia shadow boxing in slow motion as James looks on bewildered. In contrast, Haney’s footage shows a much more focused fighter. Since moving up to 140, he has looked a lot stronger.
In his last fight against Regis Prograis, Haney won every round on his way to becoming a two-weight world champion. He also dropped Prograis in the fight despite not getting the stoppage. His training footage shows him running along a snowy mountain.
Garcia Reacts
The contrast has led to suggestions that the fight should be cancelled. Garcia has responded to those claims, calling out reporter Ben Thompson. Thompson suggested that the question of the fight being cancelled was the most contentious thing in boxing now.
“My whole thing is how you said that this fight needs to be stopped. It needs to be cancelled. I know that you’re working for Floyd. And Floyd probably told you to try to make my s**t go down. But, I need you to know that this fight is going on. Nobody can stop it. Nor FightHype nor Floyd Mayweather. Nobody’s going to stop this fight because I’m perfectly fine. And I’ve been training very hard. And you know I love you, Ben,” Garcia said
The only way for Garcia to stop his critics would be to put on a stellar performance come fight night. However, a defeat makes it harder for Garcia to secure those big fights.
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