Ryan Garcia made a public appearance accompanied his brother, lightweight boxer Sean Garcia, to the ring for his ill-fated bout where he was stopped in the sixth round by Amado Vargas at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Ryan Garcia has been in the midst of controversy after he was reprimanded by his promoters Golden Boy Promotions and the WBC for some bigoted and violent comments he made on social media earlier this week. Garcia has since said he was heading to rehab, but appeared alongside his brother on Show X and even said he “skipped rehab for this shit.”
In this bout, the better-conditioned 23-year-old Vargas (11-0, 5 KOs) outpowered the 23-year-old Sean (7-1-1, 2 KOs). Ryan tweeted after the match, “Shawn kept taking uppercuts and never fought back. Fair play and congrats Amado. I knocked you and your brothers out pretty easily but congrats to you for the win.”
Ryan Garcia was not seen after the final bell rang, leading to speculation on social media that the hateful words he had spoken earlier had gotten him kicked out of the building. Garcia responded to these allegations by writing, “I left without being taken away. No one is hateful in real life and everyone was cool because like I said, everyone knows my heart.”
After the fight, Sean Garcia had this to say about his loss to Vargas: “It was a good fight, as expected. I don't think I was exhausted, but he beat me. It was my first time fighting longer than four rounds, but that's why you need that experience in this sport. He was better tonight. I was just trying to get him out of there. My game plan basically went away at the end and I was just trying to do some damage.”
Ryan Garcia appeared to have put thoughts of rehab on the back burner by Sunday, announcing on Instagram that he would now be training his younger brother.
“So I skipped out to watch my brother get stopped. That's fine. I've committed to being @lilrushgee's head trainer. I demand a rematch. I bet 250000 winner take all.”
