Ryan Garcia has laid out his long-term plans – and he only wants big fights from here on.
First, he meets former amateur rival Devin Haney on April 20 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, then the 24-1 (20 KOs) 25 year old said he hopes to go on a run that will culminate in him being able to avenge the only loss of his career, which came against Gervonta “Tank” Davis last April in one of the biggest fights of 2023.
“I want to end my career fighting Tank Davis for the second time at 140lbs, after I defeat Devin, Teofimo [Lopez], Shakur [Stevenson], and then Tank,” said Garcia. “And then I’m done.
Haney, also 25, had used the Davis defeat to mock Garcia, saying he “quit” from a body shot when stopped in the seventh-round last year.
Garcia said getting down to the catchweight of 136lbs had left him depleted, and Davis beat what was left.
“It’s just stupid,” Garcia said of the quit jibes. “Okay, I want to see somebody cut all that weight, kill themselves, have blisters in your mouth because you’re so dehydrated, get in the ring, fight in front of everybody in the biggest fight of your life and get hit to the liver and you see what you’ll do. Don’t talk like that.”
But in defeat, Garcia said his eyes were opened and he started to feel differently. Earlier in his career, Garcia had taken time out to focus on his mental health, but after losing to Tank, he says a switch flicked within him and his mindset changed.
He will head to Dallas, Texas, to train with Derrick James for Haney, and spoke of how his hunger for the sport has changed.
“After that Tank fight, it really changed me – it awoke my competitive spirit,” Garcia said.
“When you’re going through a mental-health crisis, you don’t care about life, so me trying to get back into the sport and trying to be myself, it was a hard process. And then after the Tank fight, I woke up. I was like, ‘No I’m different. I’m about to go and destroy everybody now’.”