Ryan Garcia press conference was disturbing - he needed more time for Devin Haney fight

Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney face off this weekend in Brooklyn

My long-held concerns about Ryan Garcia’s state of mind have not gone away. He appears to have been subject to serious stress in the build-up, and his display at the press conference was frankly disturbing.

Of all the sports, boxing is not one to go into if you are vulnerable. In so many respects Garcia is impressive, a daring, attacking fighter, a spiteful puncher with a great left hook, but that means nothing if you are not bang at it.

If Garcia is fooling everybody with an elaborate charade, then this is a great fight. Devin Haney is more of a thinker than a destructive, all-out fighter like Gervonta Davis, who inflicted Garcia’s only defeat.

That was at lightweight. Garcia went up to super-lightweight in his next bout and is in a better place physically challenging WBC super-lightweight champion Haney in what will be his first world title fight.

There is something of the Floyd Mayweather Jnr about Haney that I just can’t get into. He would rather win a fight by standing off than getting stuck in. I have no problems with that, but it is just not for me.

He obviously senses the instability in Garcia. But he is not responsible for that. That is on the promoters. Haney is the better all-rounder, really solid in all departments and brilliant defensively. However, for excitement give me Garcia every day.

If Garcia is to inflict a first defeat on Haney he has to throw loads of shots and close the space down. Piledrive the right hand and let the left hook go. You can only beat Haney by attacking relentlessly. If Garcia lets up, he will be picked off.

No-one can really say how Garcia will respond for sure. He looked decent in camp but we can’t read anything into the clips his team puts out.

We will only know his state of mind when he gets hit. Will he capitulate? Will he be frustrated by the difficulty of landing clean shots?

I worry that whatever is happening in his life, we are expecting too much of Garcia to get through a fight like this. I think he needed more time. I hope I’m wrong. I hope he does himself justice because he is a great fighter. But this is a big, big test.

Given all the concerns about Garcia’s wellbeing, I can see Haney ending this early. Failing that, he wins by a comfortable points margin.

Follow Barry on Twitter at @ClonesCyclone @mcguigans_gym