For months, Ryan Garcia had everyone convinced that he was having a complete mental breakdown on social media. Now he claims it was all an act to fool fans, pundits, and, most importantly, his opponent.
During a recent interview on the PBD Podcast with Patrick Bet-David, Garcia revealed that he began concocting the plan months ago. Once he got the ball rolling on social media, there was no turning back.
“We have it pre-recorded, months ago,” Garcia said. “What’d I say was gonna happen? I said, ‘I’m about to make sure everybody thinks I’m gonna go crazy. I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do that. Watch, it’s gonna be called the great escape. Like, I have it all documented. I was already planning it weeks and months behind. ”
“I don’t know what made me come up with the idea, honestly. One day I just decided to just go all in, and commit to the plan that I had. And I was not gonna budge for nobody. I was acting like, sporadic. Like just crazy. Faces, I would do this (scrunch) with my nose, and then I’d be like, ‘It’s just a tick.’ I did make adjustments, but what was real though is at times I did drink a little bit during camp. Because I like to drink.”
King Ryan Garcia had the heist of the century. 🤣 The face of boxing pic.twitter.com/ylCRpW3I7N
— Miguel Angel Garza (@MiguelG3922600) April 24, 2024
Ryan Garcia Fools the Sportsbooks and Banks $12 Million
Over the last several weeks, Garcia posted a variety of videos online claiming that he had been held against his will, exploited, and even murdered. It was so convincing that the Nevada State Athletic Commission requested a mental health evaluation be done on ‘King Ryan’ ahead of his fight with WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney.
“.. It kept unraveling itself,” Garcia said. “If I’m being quite honest, it was more of a — it wasn’t so much my ideas, it was more so just wisdom coming from God. And then I just made adjustments as I went. I would have these strong urges. Like [signs] from the Holy Spirit to do this, do that.
“And then God always cleaned up everything I was doing. I felt like on one side I had the enemy pushing me to do certain things and then I had God and it was just like, no matter what happened, God always made it right.”
Garcia’s antics also significantly impacted the betting lines for his bout with Haney. Going into the fight, the Los Alamitos, California was a massive underdog, prompting Garcia to reportedly place a $2 million bet on himself to win the fight. Sitting at +600, Garcia cashed a $12 million ticket.
All told, Garcia banked around $50 million for his efforts.
