Via Vince D’Writer – After 19 months of being fired, former two-division champion Danny “Swift” Garcia stepped into the ring as a 154-pound boxer for the first time to face Jose Benavidez Jr. The Philadelphia native didn’t show off any rings as he made an impressive debut in the super-heavyweight category, and earned a decisive majority win.
Garcia (36-3, 21 KOs) looks very relaxed as he fights smartly. He seemed to have prepared well, and he did a great job of being efficient and using a good punching position. Garcia was able to stay active and maintain a steady pace throughout the fight. He has different looks, throws several counter punches, uses his stabs in different ways, and maintains a consistent attack on the body.
Garcia had a great debut in his new weight class when he won in the ring, but in his post-fight interview, Garcia revealed how he won outside the squared circle.
In a post-fight interview with Jim Grey, Danny Garcia became very emotional as he revealed his long layoff was due to his struggles with mental health issues. “I feel a little dark. I went through some anxiety and depression, and I did my best to stay healthy. That’s it,” Garcia declared. What Danny Garcia shared regarding his mental health issue is becoming a popular topic in the boxing community. Last April, Ryan Garcia canceled a match because he was dealing with anxiety, and recently Omar Figueroa Jr admitted his time away from the ring was due to his battle with issues. mental health.
The question some fans are asking is why do all these boxers have mental health issues? The simple answer to the question is the word “Pressure”. Athletes in all sports face anxiety and pressure, but in the sport of boxing, it’s a different kind of pressure because you’re competing alone. In a team sport, if the team loses, it’s different moments, you can look at this and say this is why we lose, but in boxing, a boxer couldn’t point a finger at a time, he could only point at himself.
When a boxer is inside the ring, he has no one to help. They have a trainer in the corner to help navigate them through the fray, but they don’t have anyone inside the ring to help them through certain situations. For example, in a game of basketball, if a player is being overwhelmed one-on-one in hand, the coach can call for defensive help where teammates can go down and double down on defending. The same applies in the game of football. If a corner is dominated by a wide receiver during a game, the coach can switch things up and move to a defensive area where the full-back’s teammates are positioned to help him. Unfortunately, there is no help in boxing, and the only person responsible for the loss is yourself because you are the only one fighting.
The stress of winning is immense for boxers, because winning equates to greater chances, championship gold, and consistency in making a living. If an NFL team loses four or five games in a row during the regular season, that team still has a chance to make it to the knockout stages and go to the Super Bowl. If a boxer loses four or five fights in a row, his career is essentially over.
Boxing is crude, but it is seen as a glamorous sport because we see boxers with exotic cars, designer clothes and expensive jewelry, but the truth is of the problem is that everyone does not reach the bright lights. The pressure some fighters feel regarding training under bright lights can cause anxiety and mental health problems. For elite boxers who have reached the pinnacle of success, they have a different kind of underlying anxiety because they feel pressured to win in order to stay in the spotlight.
Boxing is a unique and highly entertaining sport, but for individuals entering the ring, this sport comes with a multitude of challenges both physically and mentally. Now that the fighters are actually taking the field and acknowledging the challenges they’re going through, hopefully the boxing heads can come up with some sort of support system to get the hang of this.
