Ryan Garcia shocked the world when he defeated Devin Haney last weekend, overcoming huge odds to put an end to the undefeated record of his amateur rival – odds which he claims to have benefited from. However, one former world title challenger doubts the claims of ‘King Ry’, doubting the truth of the 25-year-old’s supposed pre-fight bet.
Garcia’s antics during the build-up to the contest saw him smoking marijuana, faking his own death and posting wild conspiracy theories onto his social platforms before he weighed into the bout three pounds over the 140lb limit with a ‘beer in his hand’, seemingly confirming suspicions that he was not fully focussed on Devin Haney.
However, come fight night, Garcia appeared to be at the peak of his powers as he pulled off the upset win, knocking Haney down for the first, second and third time of his career on the way to a majority-decision victory.
During the aftermath, Garcia explained that he was ‘playing possum’ before he stepped through the ropes and revealed that he had placed a $2 million bet on himself to win the contest, which would be expected to bag him around a $12 million return, allowing him to comfortably pay off the $1.5 million fine for missing weight.
In an interview with iFL TV, former British champion and three-time world title challenger, Paul Smith, revealed his doubts surrounding the reported wager and whether Garcia’s uncharacteristic behaviour truly was an act to increase the betting odds and possibly distract Haney.
“I keep seeing that he bet $2 million no himself – where is the betting slip? Because if I bet £2 million on myself to win anything then you are going to see my betting slip, I guarantee you that. Everyone is going to see it.
“Mayweather bets a million dollars to win 200 grand and he stills posts his betting slip – where is the betting slip? Everyone posts their wins, not many post their losses but if you did do that – where is the proof of it?
“If you did, good on you. Honestly, it is nothing to do with me, it is no skin off of my nose, I don’t mind! But you just get too many of these gullible people saying how ‘Ryan did this’ and ‘Ryan did that’, you have never met him!
“I have never met him, so I couldn’t tell you about him personally and how he is, even me saying that he doesn’t look well or that he doesn’t look normal is just from what I have seen of him in the past.
“Every time that we have seen him recently, he might have been putting an act on to be normal and that might have been the real kid.”
One thing that is almost certainly not an act is Garcia’s difficulty making super-lightweight, revealing his intentions to immediately move up to welterweight during the aftermath of the event.
Boxing Social is now on WhatsApp! Join our channel by clicking here and getting all the latest boxing news direct to your phone.