Ryan Garcia always knew how to use social media to his advantage.
What he shows to his legion of followers, however, is rarely what he intends to apply to any given fight.
“I don’t show anybody what I’m working on,” Garcia insisted during a recent open workout ahead of his April 9 DAZN headliner versus Ghana’s Emmanuel Tagoe. “I just post stuff that I know is gonna go viral for boxing, like speed drills or body shot challenges.
“Do you really think I actually do that in the training session? People just don’t think. I don’t beat a gold medalist just by doing f——’ body shot challenges and speed drills. If I’m able to do that, I must be the greatest ever.”
Much of what makes its way to Garcia’s social media channels are intended for his target base among his more than 8.7 million followers on Instagram and 1.16 million YouTube subscribers. The 23-year-old Garcia (21-0, 18KOs) saves the substantive work for training camp, as is the case for his fight with Tagoe (32-1, 15KOs), which will be fought at a maximum contract limit of 139-pounds atop a DAZN telecast from Alamodome in San Antonio.
The fight will be the first for Garcia since his off-the-canvas, seventh-round knockout of 2012 Olympic Gold medalist and former title challenger Luke Campbell (20-4, 16KOs) last January 2 in Dallas. A mental health reset and subsequent wrist injury requiring surgery resulted in a career-long 15-month inactive stretch for the unbeaten lightweight contender heading into the April 9 clash with Tagoe.
Even during his career downtime, Garcia managed to cater to his followers just enough to keep his name in headlines.
“I’m actually smarter than people think,” Garcia previously told BoxingScene.com. “I’ve had a vision when I was younger. I said that social media was gonna play a big part in this game, and I took advantage of that.
“I wanted everyone to know this kid from Victorville. I wanted to show people that I’m coming. And now, here I am. I’ve seen it before it happened and now I’m ready to take over.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox