The news conference Thursday in Los Angeles to promote the April 20 fight between 140-pound titleholder Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia was unsettling.
It started on an interesting enough note, with Garcia arriving at a nightclub in Hollywood on a white horse. However, it devolved into a back-and-forth exchange that makes one wonder whether the fight will even take place.
The weirdness started the night before, when Garcia posted an image of himself smoking what appeared to be marijuana on social media. The fight is only seven weeks away.
And as he spoke Thursday his voice was strangely muffled.
Haney, sharing a dais with Garcia, seized on that by suggesting that his opponent “stop the coke. It’s f*cking up your voice.”
Garcia responded that he doesn’t take cocaine and offered to take a drug test to prove it but admitted that he does party, saying, “I drink and I smoke weed. And so has the majority of this room.”
“What kind of example are you?” Haney said. “The younger generation should look up to us.”
Garcia admitted that posting the image on social media was a mistake. He also acknowledged that he’s flawed and that it can be difficult for a 25-year-old to handle stardom, adding, “Sometimes the weight of the world feels like it’s on my shoulders.”
That’s a strange comment given that most fighters try to project strength, not weakness in the lead up to a fight.
Then, in perhaps the most bizarre moment of the news conference, Haney seemed to be sincere when he asked Garcia repeatedly whether he plans to show up for the fight.
Garcia didn’t answer. Instead, seated at the dais, he sat silently using his cell phone.
The champion and the challenger did engage in the obligatory stare down after the formal portion of the event. However, in one last odd moment, Garcia stepped away almost sheepishly as Haney delivered trash talk.
Will Garcia step into the ring on April 20 in Brooklyn, New York? If so, will he be in the proper frame of mind? We’ll see.
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