Ryan Garcia has revealed that he’s entering rehab to get help following his racist tirade last Thursday on social media and the predictable backlash that has resulted from it.
During the 25-year-old Ryan’s rant on Livestream, he used racial slurs, targeting black people and saying disparaging things about Muslims.
The World Boxing Council (WBC) president, Mauricio Sulaiman, expelled Ryan, who is suspended by the New York Commission for one year, because of his comments.
Last June, the New York State Athletic Commission handed Ryan a year suspension for testing positive for PEDs in his fight against Devin Haney last April. Ryan’s 12-round majority decision victory has since been overturned and changed to a no-contest.
I am going to rehab btw
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) July 5, 2024
Apology and Road to Recovery
Reeling from the public backlash, Garcia apologized on Instagram, saying he was sorry.
“If you get triggered by a word, it means you are too sensitive,” Ryan said on Friday on Instagram. I was speaking against black-on-black crime. They took everything out of context, including the Muslim part. I spoke against pedo activity.”
Ryan doesn’t say where precisely he’s going to go for rehab or what exactly he will be doing. He also fails to elaborate on what type of rehab he’s going to enter into.
His father, Henry Garcia, said recently that he wants him to stop drinking. Ryan said he responded days ago that he had already stopped. However, his rant on Friday makes one question whether alcohol led to his comments or something else.
In a statement from Ryan’s promoter, Ryan Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions, he said, “There is no room for hate or intolerance at my company. Period. We hope that Ryan will use his time away from the sport to work through his publicly discussed issues.”
