In the space of half an hour, the narrative around Ryan Garcia’s career trajectory completely changed as he comprehensively outboxed Devin Haney in New York.
The perils of underestimating a generational talent
Garcia had supposedly endured a turbulent build-up to his bout with Haney and on the eve of their fight, came in at 3.2lbs over the super-lightweight division limit.
It was enough to see their title bout downgraded and was allegedly proof of Garcia’s ill-discipline during his training camp. As initially touched on though, Garcia stunned the watching world by flooring Haney three times en route to winning by way of majority decision.
If Garcia had lost, it would have been a long way back for the 25-year-old with promoters likely to be wary of conducting business with an athlete who was appearing to be increasingly erratic. However, winning so prolifically has made Garcia the number one ticket in town with a host of fighters stepping forward to challenge him after delivering the best performance of 2024.
O'Malley fancies his chances against Garcia
One of those men was the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) Bantamweight Champion Sean O’Malley who renewed his running feud with Garcia after the judge's decision was made public at the Barclays Center.
O’Malley quickly suggested that he was ready to replace the Octagon for the boxing ring to make a fight with Garcia a reality. Crucially, the 29-year-old also stated that he had Dana White’s blessing to break from his UFC contract to sign a one-off fight deal with Garcia.
— Sean O'Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) April 5, 2024
With Garcia immediately stating that he was equally open to the idea, this looks like a fight that could happen in 2024, but should it?
Put plainly, would O’Malley pose a legitimate threat to Garcia in a boxing ring?
Who will fall into Garcia's trap next?
While answers will vary, the reality is that Garcia’s smoke and mirrors act this year has given the impression that the Californian-born boxer is wavering in his professionalism, thus making him an opponent who can be easily vanquished.
The goings-on against Haney in the Big Apple should have reminded everyone that Garcia is a generational talent whose record reads 26 fights, 25 wins, and one loss. Furthermore, 20 of those wins have been achieved by knockout.
The main takeaway here is that Garcia has shown over the last few months that he is as skilled at luring his opponents into a false sense of security as he is in the ring. In other words, at no stage did Garcia think he would lose his recent fight.
This pre-fight confidence is backed up by the fact that 'King Ry' also placed a $2 million bet on himself to beat Haney at odds of +600 which returned $12 million.
This is a man who was in no doubt about how prepared he was, even if the world had serious misgivings.
Beware Garcia's poker face
But should anyone be surprised that Garcia has expertly downplayed his hand to devastating effect when he regularly spends his time around a poker table? Poker, you might ask with a raised eyebrow.
The answer is yes, the same game that you might play at an online casino as Casinoalpha carefully details here in this comprehensive guide to the best casino platforms.
While it might come as a surprise, Garcia has played in huge events both online and at some of the world's biggest casinos. The highlight of Garcia's poker career undoubtedly came during the 2023 World Series of Poker where the boxer finished in 566th place out of over 10,000 entrants.
Garcia would make light work of O'Malley
While this was a very respectable showing, the wider point is that Garcia has a track record for skillfully keeping his cards close to his chest, and by giving off the image that he is there for the beating, the 25-year-old has effortlessly claimed the biggest scalp in the super-lightweight division.
Again, the question has to be asked, how would O’Malley - a boxer not by trade, fare in the ring with Garcia?
After the events on the night of the 20th of April, there is no reason to believe anything other than the fact that Garcia is one of the best lightweight boxers of any era; beating him will take something special.
