Ryan Garcia is taking inspiration from the 12-year-old fan battling leukaemia as he nears the biggest fight of his career with Gervonta Davis.
Garcia and Davis fight on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, in an occasion that could yet prove both fighters’ defining night.
At Tuesday’s grand arrivals at the MGM Grand the 24-year-old Garcia was joined by AJ Latimer, a fan of his undergoing chemotherapy.
That he is so regularly reminded of the scale of Saturday’s fight when he is already trying to make the 136lb catchweight could have had the potential to distract him, but his awareness of Latimer’s struggles means Garcia has a sense of perspective about what may or may not be at stake.
“There’s so many people around the world battling something way bigger than this,” he said. “This is why I’m not worried at all. Life is way much more than this. But, through this, I hope I can inspire people around the world to keep fighting, and to continue to follow their paths.
“It gives me true peace. This is nothing. This is all, just, extra. Life, every day – evolving as a man. That’s what matters. None of this [fighting Davis] matters. But when I do something, I do it real good.”
Leonard Ellerbe, one of the 28-year-old Davis’ team members, attempted to get under Garcia’s skin during Thursday’s press conference when claiming he had had a “mole” in Garcia’s and Joe Goosen’s Los Angeles-based training camp.
Garcia responded by insisting it wouldn’t have mattered if they had, such is his confidence of victory, and dismissed it as an attempt to enhance Davis’ self-belief.
“I don’t care,” he said when he was reminded of what Ellerbe had just said. “I’d allow them there. I’m not worried about it. It’s not going to do anything. I will give him my whole playbook – I will stop him. Sometimes, as a fighter, you just know how to fight. So when I’m in there, what he’s seen will maybe not be what’s in front of him