TMZSports.com
Former boxing champ Andre Ward tells TMZ Sports he’s got a simple solution for Ryan Garcia‘s apparent woes … stay off social media — and start taking his upcoming fight with Devin Haney more seriously.
Garcia has a bunch of his fans — and Ward, too — concerned about his mental health … after he spent a few days this past month posting some bizarre things on his X and Instagram pages.
Some of the posts included vows to expose numerous secrets about society … as well as a video claiming something bad had happened to him.
Ward told us out in NYC this week he’s noticed it all, and he’s worried — but he thinks the 25-year-old can get back on track if he simply stops hitting the send button online.
“I think the first thing is, he’s got to get off social media,” Ward said. “I think somebody around him gotta tell him, ‘We gotta deal with this, but we not going to deal with it in the public side.'”
“It’s enough to be dealing with it and struggling with it as is,” he continued, “but then you gon’ let the whole world in on your struggle. It’s not always a wise thing to do.”
Things have seemed to turn so troubling with Garcia that some of his biggest supporters have urged him to opt out of his April 20 bout with Haney … but Ward believes he’ll manage — if his training camp goes accordingly.
“That ain’t time for self-care, that’s not time for counseling, that’s time to get ready for war,” the 40-year-old said.
“I’m praying for him and I wish him nothing but the best.”
For his part, Garcia acknowledged in a video earlier this week there have been some “pretty intense things” on his social media pages … but he’s now focusing solely — at least publicly — on “boxing, sports and my fight.”