Another Ryan Garcia win, another critic eating crow.

Garcia, the 23-year-old lightweight from Victorville, California, is coming off a decisive sixth-round stoppage of Javier Fortuna last Saturday in a 140-pound bout at the crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The win was a marked turnaround from his admittedly dull points win in his last fight against Emmanuel Tagoe in April.

Known for his matinee idol looks and social media savvy and popularity, Garcia has been an easy target of critics who are not sold on him as a genuine fighter and view his personality, moreover, as abrasive and insolent.

For Garcia, his latest win was a reminder to him that his detractors are getting further and further away from reality.

“I feel like the more I win, the more those people sound delusional,” Garcia said of his naysayers in an interview with BBC 5 Live Boxing. “That’s how I feel. The more I win, the more deluded they’ll be.

"Because what it does to me is it fuels my fire even more. I don’t even need more fire to fuel me. But for some reason, most of the time, I take it personal. Most of the time I wear a chip on my shoulder for that reason.”

The 23-year-old suspects his critics are jealous of his versatile ability, not only in the ring but outside of it as well. Garcia, for example, has parlayed his social media influence and boxing ability into rare endorsement deals. In 2021, he signed a deal with Gatorade to become the first American fighter endorsed by the iconic sporting drink. He is also signed to IMG Models, a talent and modeling agency.

Garcia was riding high after his destructive stoppage of the 33-year-old Fortuna. After the bout, he called out Gervonta Davis, the popular, hard-hitting draw from Baltimore, to a showdown. The show of confidence seemed to display how far Garcia had progressed since last year, when he took a break from boxing to focus on his mental health.

“A lot of these things people are saying are benefitting me at the end of the day,” Garcia said. “If they really look at it. It’s either giving me more attention or it's fueling my fire. Honestly, I see it as jealousy and enviousness because they can’t comprehend that I can do everything. How can I be good at social media and how can I be good at modeling.”

“Whatever I do I try my best at and I’ll be good at it or I’ll figure it out. I think they’re envious of that. They don’t want a guy that’s on top of everything. They’re trying to find weakness in me but they’re not gonna find it.”