Ryan Garcia threatens legal action as fresh doubt cast on Devin Haney fight
Associated PressRyan Garcia has threatened the New York boxing commission with legal action ahead of his mega fight against Devin Haney next month.
Garcia is slated to challenge Haney for his WBC super-lightweight world title on April 20 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
But the build up to the fight has descended into chaos in recent weeks, with a number of bizarre posts and incidents occurring on Garcia’s social media.
New York Boxing Commission want to make Garcia evaluation
The 25-year-old has spouted a number of conspiracy theories and a disturbing post shared on Twitter earlier this month sparked concern among boxing fans over his mental welfare.
Garcia’s team have insisted he is in a position for the fight to go ahead but, according to Garcia, the New York Boxing Commission want to make their own evaluation before sanctioning the bout.
“I’m going to sue the NYC Commission and this is why,” Garcia said during a live stream on social media. “They’re trying to challenge me for a mental evaluation.
“I said: ‘Okay, what is your premise for the mental evaluation?’ They said: ‘Well your tweets and your posts.’ I said: ‘Is it not my US constitutional right to have free speech?’
“Because I’m tweeting what I’m tweeting that’s premise for a mental evaluation? That’s curious, so now you’re trying to mess with my constitutional rights. Now I’m going to sue you, I’m going to sue you for defamation of character actually.
“They won’t test Mike Tyson if he fought in New York, but they will test me. Sounds a little fishy to me. And I love Mike, Mike loves me. I can’t wait for them to actually take me to court, because I will literally defeat them.”
Since Garcia posted this video, his social media accounts appear to have been deactivated. As things stand, the fight is still set to go ahead as normal next month.
