Fans have been concerned about Ryan Garcia’s state of mind, since the boxer shared several alarming posts and claimed that his life was in danger. But now Garcia has revealed that his troubling antics over the past few weeks have been part of an elaborate publicity stunt.
On the latest episode of the PBD Podcast, Garcia admitted that his behavior was a planned out ploy to get eyes on him ahead of his fight with Devin Haney. According to Garcia, he titled the project "The Great Escape."
"We had it pre-recorded months ago," Garcia said. "I said 'I'm about to make sure everybody thinks I'm going crazy. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, watch it's going to be called 'The Great Escape.' I have it all documented. I was already planning weeks and weeks and weeks behind. I don't know what made me come up with the idea."
While it’s unclear what gave Garcia the idea to pull off this stunt, once he decided to follow through he was committed.
"One day, I just decided to go all in and just commit to a plan that I had, and I was not going to budge for nobody,” he said. “It don't matter if I went on his podcast or anybody's podcast; I was acting sporadic, just like crazy."
Fans first believed something was wrong with Garcia after he began showing up to interviews displaying abnormal behavior and fidgeting. The boxer then took it to the next level by sharing posts about Satanism.
At one point, Garcia posted a message on his social media pages saying that he had been sacrificed. Obviously Garcia was fine, as he showed up to pre-fight activities unharmed, but fans were still concerned.
Garcia finally silenced all concerns when he knocked down Haney three times, before winning the bout under majority decision. In one of his post-fight interviews, Garcia told the Barclays Center crowd, "You thought I was crazy?"
