Ryan Garcia had the whole world in the palm of his hand.

A “wise” man once said, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” The 25-year-old boxing superstar prodigy is indeed a real and supremely talented athlete. It turns out, he just had the entire combat sports world fooled beyond belief.

Garcia was a +500 underdog ahead of his recent match with fellow youthful superstar boxer Devin Haney. On paper, the gap between the two never should have been so wide as it was with Garcia at 24-1 to Haney’s flawless 31-0. However, the months in advance of the matchup saw the Oscar De La Hoya protege in varied concerning states that left the world questioning the state of his mental health, whether drug or damage-related. Ultimately, the Victorville, California native was acting to the most incredible of his capabilities before putting on a masterclass performance that saw him earn a majority decision upset win over his rival this past Saturday.

“We have it pre-recorded, months ago,” Garcia said on PBD Podcast. “What’d I say was gonna happen? I said, ‘I’m about to make sure everybody thinks I’m gonna go crazy. I’mma do this, I’mma do that.’ Watch, it’s gonna be called the ‘great escape.’ Like, I have it all documented. I was already planning it weeks and months behind.

“I don’t know what made me come up with the idea, honestly. One day I just decided to just go all in, and just commit to the plan that I had, and I was not gonna budge for nobody. I was acting like, sporadic. Like just crazy. Faces, I would do this with my nose (scrunch), and then I’d be like, ‘It’s just a tick.’ I had everything.”

Garcia’s plan worked. Most fans watching the social media posts of Garcia were speculating how the fight could even be allowed after Garcia was “clearly” in disarray and in need of help, proving him unfit to compete. “The King” even went as far as to, presumably, miss weight intentionally by 3.2 pounds for the 140-pound title tilt and chug a beer on stage at ceremonial weigh-ins. The price of attention can’t be beat, after all.

The latter of which was real for Garcia, admitting he enjoys himself a good time. It just was never as serious or troublesome as spectators made it out to be from his pre-match antics.

“What was real though is at times I did drink a little bit during camp. Because I like to drink,” Garcia said.

“It (promo for Haney fight) kept unraveling itself. If I’m being quite honest, it was more of a — it wasn’t so much my ideas, it was more so just wisdom coming from God, and then I just made adjustments as I went. I would have these strong urges. Like [signs] from the Holy Spirit to do this, do that. Then God always cleaned up everything I was doing.”

TOP STORIES

Hiatus. Justin Gaethje: It’ll be ‘6 months, at least, before I get back to taking shots’ after UFC 300 loss

Critique. Matt Brown lambastes referee ‘clearly’ favoring Devin Haney over Ryan Garcia: ‘You should be fined for that one, motherf*****’

Nope. Islam Makhachev not interested in Max Holloway matchup: ‘Maybe if he wins his next fight’

Again. Lyoto Machida ‘already breathing fire’ after Luke Rockhold callout, interested in Karate Combat rematch

Hopeful. Mike Perry believes a bare-knuckle fight with Conor McGregor really could happen: ‘Conor’s a real one’

Assessment. Sean Strickland’s head coach explains what he could’ve done better vs. Dricus du Plessis, previews Paulo Costa bout

VIDEO STEW

MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz chats with Akiko Stehrenberger.

Sound & Pound with Sabah Homasi

Free fight.

LISTEN UP

Heck of a Morning. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses who should Max Holloway fight next after spectacular UFC 300 knockout.

MORNING MUSIC

A classic.

Go to Twitter, use the #MorningReport hashtag, or find one of my tweets with it, and drop me a jam you’re currently really into. I’ll pick the best one alongside my daily choice and give you a shoutout! You can also share in the comments below — those are just harder to sift through sometimes!

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Bully.

What’s going on with that first one?

Dang.

Well.

Maritza.

Jairzinho...?!

Art.

Whoops.

Sliced.

Dean.

Torn.

Champ.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mayra Bueno Silva (10-3-1, 1 NC) vs. Macy Chiasson (10-3); UFC 303, June 29

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is one of my happier predictions to be right about. Garcia was pretty believable. Good for him.

Thanks for reading!

EXIT POLL

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