Ryan García: ‘I’m searching for something deeper than boxing’

R yan García rolls out of bed in the middle of the morning in Los Angeles. He is shirtless, his hair is tousled and he is very sleepy as he logs on for our interview. García, of course, still looks like a multi-million dollar pin-up and, as he smiles and says hello with a lazy wave, it is easy to understand why the 24-year-old has 9.6m followers on Instagram.

His bare chest is covered in tattoos and his voice is husky with sleep as he says, “I’m pretty dazed right now. But I’m here.”

The biggest fight in boxing this year is almost here as well.

García has done all his hard training and is ready for the dangerous and intense battle he will face in Las Vegas on Saturday against the formidable Gervonta Davis. Both these gifted but often haunted men are unbeaten, having won all 51 of their combined fights, and they meet each other in the prime of their careers – in a catchweight bout at 136 pounds, one pound over the lightweight limit as García is the bigger man and usually fights at super-lightweight.

This is the fight boxing needs so desperately amid a terrible spell for the sport.

One big bout after another has disappeared as promoters and fighters squabble over money, the sanctioning bodies are as rotten and ineffectual as ever, the shadow of doping deepens and stretches across the ring and it even seems as if Daniel Kinahan, the alleged drug cartel leader who is being hunted by the FBI and law enforcement agencies from Ireland and the rest of Europe, is still actively involved in boxing. The fight business seems bleaker than ever.

Davis v García, somehow, still got made. This is a fight that fulfils all logic, suggesting that the sport would thrive if the best boxers could just get on with displaying their courage and