Midnight Mania: ‘Misunderstood’ Garcia Heading To Rehab

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Boxing superstar Ryan Garcia is clearly in a bad way.

Fortune and fame are great, but it’s become more than apparent that “King” has some issues to sort through. It’s difficult to even describe his last six months as a rise and fall, because even in the lead up to his high-profile victory over Devin Haney — since overturned to a “No Contest” — there were plenty of troubling signs of substance abuse and general mental health concerns.

Chugging a beer at weigh-ins is not the sign of an athlete with his head on straight.

On Thursday, the suspended boxer shot himself in the foot once more with a wildly racist and uncomfortable rant, in which Garcia used the N word repeatedly and tackled subjects like George Floyd and pedophilia. Subsequently, he was quickly expelled from the WBC, though there could be longer term consequences for his words as well.

Since then, Garcia has issued a lengthy apology. Simultaneously, he “takes all responsibility” while also claiming to be “misunderstood.” Really, the entire apology is a strange jumble of words (read in full below), but the most important bit came in a separate social media post that read, “I’m going to rehab, btw.”

“I take all responsibility for my words. I’m misunderstood, I just got a lot of trauma. And It’s been a tough couple of months as everyone can tell but I AM SORRY. I struggle with substance abuse and it hard for me with everything going on. I actually love black people no cap which is why I’m actually said I offended all my black family and friends. This sucks but all I can do is be better and stop using stupid words and letting some people in my circle hype me up. Sorry everyone that I offended. I still stand on stopping black on black crime And that I hate pedo’s so that will always remain something I stand on.”

While that was the main apology, Garcia continued to rant on social media afterward. Primarily, he complained about other boxers saying questionably racist phrases, like Tim Bradley calling him a “zoo animal” or Devin Haney’s claim that he’ll “never lose to a white boy.”

Certainly, there’s room for off-color trash talk in combat sports, but Garcia found and crossed the line. Hopefully, he’s telling the truth about his planned rehab stint and can get the help he needs.

@OpenNoteGrapple, I explored #UFC submission frequencies.

Rear naked chokes are by far the most prevalent, followed by guillotine & then armbar.

The 5 most common submissions make up ~82% of submissions in UFC history. The other ~18% come from 24+ other types. pic.twitter.com/80hdD1wjNh

— Nate Latshaw (@NateLatshaw) July 5, 2024