By: Sean Crose
“Most tickets are sold out,” said Ryan Garcia in a recent video from ESNews. “Good chairs, they’ll go.” There is no doubt that Garcia is a famous boxer. With a 22-0 record, the 23-year-old Californian has endorsement deals and millions of social media followers and he is yet to win a world title. However, here’s the thing – the guy can hit like a sledgehammer. On the surface, he also craves big challenges. It comes as little surprise then that tickets are moving quickly for Garcia’s July 16 fight against fellow lightweight Javier Fortuna at LA’s Crypto.com Arena.
“This is the battle that you guys are going to watch,” he continued, “to judge the next big one.” Sure enough, Garcia last fought in April, when he battled Emmanuel Tragone to the final bell. Although Garcia received a unanimously decisive nod, all but his previous three ended prematurely. Sometimes you can be a victim of your own success. Garcia, though, hadn’t fought in over a year for personal reasons before he fought Tragone, so there’s still good will for the man among boxing’s often supercritical fandom. “I will definitely beat Fortuna,” Garcia said firmly.
In the brief video, the rising star makes it clear that she still has a lot to learn – not just about boxing, but also about life. “I was just growing up,” he said, “mature, but in my heart I was still a child.” Though far from the most trash talker out there, Garcia loves to engage in verbal arguments. “If you have brothers,” he said, “you talk nonsense.” To Garcia, such things are simply auspicious skeletons. “If you take life too seriously, you miss out on the good parts of life,” he adds. “It would be boring if I didn’t say anything.” In the end, Garcia insisted “all was fun.”
However, Garcia also knows well, the boxing ring is a serious place where tragic things can happen. A boxer with 18 kills in 22 fights understands better than anyone the impact a boxer’s punches can have. And indeed, Garcia was openly aware of the seriousness of the fighting game. While he has no particular problem with Fortuna, Garcia won’t hold back when the opening bell rings in California next month. “In that is war,” he said. “If he (Fortuna) gets hurt, it’s not my fault.”
Boxing is a cold game.
