By George Gigney

Social Media

THE Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia fight, scheduled for April 20, should be cancelled. Both at the press conference to announce the fight and, more prominently, on social media, Garcia has been displaying alarmingly erratic behaviour. At the presser he was fidgety, on edge and ultimately just all over the place. On social media, where he is always very active, he has been posting bizarre messages, taking aim at all sorts of people both in and out of boxing.

Then, a few days ago, a six-second video – seemingly taken from inside Garcia’s home – was posted from his account with a message claiming that he had been murdered. At the time of writing, there has been no word from Garcia or his representatives, though his ex-wife, Andrea Celina, took to her own social media account to claim she had been in contact with him.

“We are not together and I’ve been in contact with him and he may seem fine but he is not. I know in my heart he is being heavily oppressed. This is not a troll, I’m genuinely concerned and so is all his family members [sic]. We are not part of any of this and want him to get better but this IS REAL. Pray for him,” she wrote.

She provided no further clarification on what she was referring to as “real” but Ryan’s father, Henry Garcia, responded to a comment on one of his own Instagram posts and claimed that his son is “just trolling in the wrong way.”

While this seems to confirm the good news that Garcia has not been murdered, it suggests that the 25-year-old is deeply troubled at the moment. It doesn’t appear that Garcia’s social media accounts were hacked, as some have speculated, which means he orchestrated the posts claiming his throat had been slit himself. No one in a healthy state of mind would do that.

There is no need for us, as complete outsiders, to try and determine what exactly is wrong with Garcia but there is enough evidence to suggest there is something wrong. Enough wrong that he should be seeking professional help and support, rather than being punched in the head. Someone – be it from Garcia’s team, a governing body or those organising the fight with Haney – needs to step in and cancel the contest.

It might seem like a drastic step, but the welfare of the fighters should come first. Just look at what happened with Oliver McCall. In 1997, he had what we now know must have been a mental breakdown in the ring during his fight with Lennox Lewis, which saw him burst into tears and refuse to continue fighting. Months later his wife took out an emergency custody order against him and he was ultimately hospitalised due to mental illness.

At the very least, Garcia should be assessed by a psychiatrist. In all honesty, given the inherent dangers of the sport, that should be a prerequisite for all fighters in order to keep their licences, but that’s a discussion for another time. If an impartial mental health professional deems Garcia to be mentally healthy and fit to fight, we could not argue with that. On the other hand, if they were to raise concerns over his mental health, there would be undeniable grounds for cancelling the fight.

Websites

After reports emerged that Canelo Alvarez and Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) had mutually agreed to end their promotional partnership early, it appears that – according to ESPN at least – that might not be the case.

It looks as though Canelo will be fighting Jaime Munguia on May 4, with ESPN reporting that PBC – and its new broadcast partner, Amazon Prime – will still be involved.

If that’s the case, it’s probably the best news we could have hoped for. The fight that fans want most for Canelo is against David Benavidez, but it has already been made clear by numerous sources that the pair won’t be meeting next. As Benavidez is aligned with PBC, the initial reports that Canelo had moved on from the promotional outfit all but killed off any hopes of the fight happening in the near future.

Now that it appears Canelo is not in fact leaving PBC, the prospect of a Benavidez fight remains alive. There’s a very real chance that Alvarez fights Munguia in May and, should he win, go on to face Benavidez in September. That would be lovely.

What would be even better is if Canelo were to surprise everyone and announce that he’s getting straight to the point and fighting Benavidez in May. It’s unlikely, but we can hope.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

It will be interesting to see how the case of Dillian Whyte is handled by the media and received by fans. At the time of writing, news recently came from Sky Sports that Whyte has been cleared to continue his career after an investigation confirmed that a positive drugs test from last year was caused by a contaminated supplement.

The article breaking the news doesn’t confirm which organisation ran the investigation, but reveals that the leading forensic expert involved concluded: “[M]y expert view is that Mr. Whyte was the victim of a contaminated supplement that did not disclose [the contaminant] among its ingredients and he did not ingest the [contaminant] intentionally.”

Whyte has remained silent since news of the positive test came out and, in this interview with Sky, confirms that was simply because he was allowing the investigation process to be carried out before he spoke on it. A wise move and one that some could learn from.

As things stand we don’t know where Whyte’s career will go from here. He was scheduled to rematch Anthony Joshua when the positive drugs test was revealed.

Boxing on the Box

 

March 8

Anthony Joshua-Francis Ngannou

Sky Sports Box Office & DAZN PPV

Coverage begins at 3pm

March 9

Kevin Lele Sadjo-Giovanni De Carolis

DAZN

Coverage begins at TBC