Ryan Garcia is a boxing innovator – online, if not yet in the ring.
Garcia’s proficiency in leveraging Instagram and other social media platforms to build a following has led to his drawing huge crowds to his fights, without yet having won a world title. Garcia will have a chance to address the latter on April 20 when he challenges WBC junior welterweight world champion Devin Haney at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
In his latest viral moment, Garcia called out UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley. The catch: Garcia is willing to fight O’Malley in a UFC octagon.
“I’ll beat his a** in MMA, guaranteed,” Garcia, 25, recently said of O’Malley, 29, in an interview on The MMA Hour. “I am a natural. I just beat my security, who is a wrestler. I just beat him. I am strong and I got crazy conditioning.
“I know I am going to knock him out in boxing – that isn’t even fair. What is fair is to test myself in MMA.”
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) says he has been advocating for a bout with O’Malley (MMA record: 17-1, 1 NC) through UFC president Dana White.
“I have already sent text messages to Dana,” he said.
So far, Garcia has received no response. He also clarified that he has no bad blood with O’Malley. He simply wants the fight.
“He called me out first,” Garcia said. “Second, he tried to claim my theme song, ‘Superstar.’ I actually came out with Lupe Fiasco myself. Don’t let people gas you up, brother. I came up with that. You’re just a walking Conor McGregor Jr.”
Garcia has never fought in a professional MMA bout.