The Kansas City Shuffle: Ryan Garcia’s Greatest Heist

(via Yahoo Sports)

In the words of musician J. Ralph “Now the tables turned the lessons learned You've gotta earn yourself some trouble. Revenge like this, never sweet- You've got yourself a long ride home.” Ryan Garcia earned himself some trouble that made the entire world believe he was bound to lose.

The song ‘Kansas City Shuffle” by J. Ralph could very well serve as a blueprint for Ryan Garcia’s antics. Despite the disbelief in Garcia that was expressed during the leadup to his matchup against Devin Haney, Garcia may have put forth the very best performance of his career. This performance could have very well have played out due to the way Garcia acted in the leadup to his fight with Haney.

Garcia claimed that his entire act in the promotion of his fight with Haney was merely a charade. He claimed that it was merely a method of promoting one of the biggest fights to be made in modern boxing. Although one could argue that Garcia is still exhibiting symptoms that are like someone who is actually suffering from, Garcia claims it was all manufactured.

In the grand scheme of combat sports, no one has pretended to be suffering from substance abuse in their lives as a means of gaining an advantage. However, if this was Garcia’s tactic to make Haney believe that he was not being disciplined and that he would falter in this fight due to his behavior, it was a Shakespearian performance.

The level of archaic behavior he exhibited was so concerning that many believed that he was more likely to enter rehab rather than put on a legacy defining performance against Haney. His performance come fight night was far from that in every sense.

Garcia was able to knock Haney down three times in their fight, and the fact that this was their seventh matchup throughout their careers makes it even more meaningful.

Haney’s camp was certain that Garcia had made little to no improvement between his fight with Gervonta “Tank” Davis and his eventual fight with Haney. Based on what transpired, this was far from the truth.

If' anything, Haney was certainly overlooking Garcia in every capacity and that showed in his performance, Haney had no respect for Garcia’s power and he paid for it in spades.

As J. Ralph said, “Whereas you look left and they fall right
Into the Kansas City Shuffle.” It is evident that Garcia may have very well pulled the wall over the eyes of every fan in the leadup to this fight. Now the question is whether or not Garcia will move up to welterweight or if Floyd Mayweather Jr. actually convinced him to purposefully miss by three pounds and in reality Garcia can actually make super lightweight. If he can, he could very well could have a career at 140 lbs. on his hands.