“I Was a Scared Little Boy”: Ryan Garcia Reveals Two Formative Childhood Experiences Ahead of Devin Haney Fight

Ryan Garcia doesn’t shy away from throwing a challenge. But was this the case when he was a kid? While he has chased bigger fights with the likes of Gervonta Davis and now Devin Haney, did he like confrontation when he was growing up? Did he get embroiled in street fights? ‘

The American sat down with Maria Arreghini and recalled his childhood. Contrary to his current outspoken and bold persona, he was ‘scared’ and didn’t like confrontation. But the 25-year-old also had a “fire” in him that would make him stand up for himself. The same was evident when he slapped a kid for bothering him.

Ryan Garcia grew up a “sensitive” kid with a “fire”

The lightweight boxer pointed out the shift in his personality when he was growing up to the current brash one. He admitted he was sensitive and a mama’s boy. But that was until someone pushed him to the edge. Garcia said, “I was a scared little boy. I just didn’t like confrontation when I was a kid. It’s kind of funny, though, right? I’m a boxer now. Sensitive, I could feel a lot, and I was kind of a mama’s boy in a way.”

“But I also had a fire in me that would snap out of nowhere that I had no control over. If I was pushed to the edge, if somebody backed me into a corner, then it got really scary. So that’s how it was when I was [a kid],” Garcia added. The 24-1 record holder then narrated an incident when he beat up a kid named Deba.

Garcia goes down memory lane

Deba had thrown Garcia’s ball down the street, but that didn’t sit with Garcia, and the latter thought it was “disrespectful.” The Victorville native then grabbed Deba’s basketball and threw it over the fence. While he gave the other kid a fair shot and urged him to call it even, Deba wanted to throw punches and threatened to beat him up.

So the two clashed. By this time, the American boxer had already started to hit the boxing gym. Garcia continued, “I know how to box already at this time, so I just started slapping him. I hit him so hard, he had a swell on his face.” Later on, Deba’s mother thanked Garcia for beating her kid’s “a*s”.

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Following this, Garcia cited another incident when a girl on his school bus bit him on the arm. “This girl bit me on my arm on the school bus and left like a huge as* bite mark for no reason. I didn’t do anything. I think I tapped her on her head to stop because she wouldn’t going to let go, and she just kept biting me, deeper and deeper.”

Garcia, undoubtedly, evolved from a sensitive mama’s boy to one of the biggest names in the boxing world. He also learned how to nurture the fire inside him, which now separates him from the rest.

What do you make of these incidents that Ryan Garcia recounted before his Devin Haney fight? Do you believe he will come on top? Let us know in the comments below.

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