THE TROLL KING

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't." - William Shakespeare

Feigned madness is a dramatic conceit usually reserved for characters in great works of art such as Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' but last night at the Barclays Centre in New York City, California's Ryan Garcia fooled the entire boxing world and the internet with his own supposed insanity, resulting in a devastating victory over Devin Haney, a two-weight world champion and lifelong rival since they were both ten years old.

For the past few months, those of us who have willingly jumped like lemmings deep down into the rabbit hole of King Ryan's 'mind' via his social media accounts have often found ourselves like Alice, confused and disorientated and uncertain of the way home, especially as it often seemed as if the 25-year-old, matinee idol-looking boxer was either high or drunk in the lead up to the big fight.

Last night, as the final bell sounded in the ring, it appeared that Ryan Garcia has finally returned home (at least metaphorically) to some fragile kind of equilibrium, though it would take just as crazy an outside bet to stake anything on him reverting back to the wholesome Disney kid-style image he maintained before his recent madness as it would have to had bet on his winning a points victory against Haney.

Having combined a heady Alex Jones/Kanye West/Andy Kaufman approach to expounding on conspiracy theories and calling out his enemies in the lead up to his big fight with Haney, Garcia has managed to fascinate and alienate in equal measure. Like watching a seemingly never-ending, one man car crash in slow motion, it's been almost impossible to determine whether what we were all witnessing was a mental breakdown being streamed in real time or a genuine masterpiece performance of 'feigned madness'. Moral questions were raised by numerous voices, including respected commentators, about the safety of the fight and the danger it might bring with Garcia skipping like a loon along the razor’s edge of acceptable madness such as it appeared. Certainly, it now seems in retrospect he fooled both fans and scholars of the sport alike, right up until that first bell.

And as Garcia made his faith-lead ring walk to 'No Child Left Behind' and 'Jesus Walks' by Kanye West, it also became clear that the Mexican-American fighter was summoning a higher spirit, believing his fight to be his very own holy war against Haney (a Muslim) and his father Bill in a bid to inspire his personal crusade to victory (both moral and spiritual). Of course, given the insanity of his behaviour, any hope of being a religious role model has flown over the cuckoo's nest (at least for now) and it'll take some time to figure out whether the fallen sinner model of promotion will continue to be the preferred status quo over the bible boy next door persona of recent times past.

Whatever is finally concluded about Garcia's current state of mental well-being, all that can be said for now is that he beat a super lightweight champion seemingly against all the odds and is now 'the face of boxing'. This crazy Christian converted more followers to the sport of boxing as a consequence of his bizarre antics than most fighters can dream of in a lifetime.

The method may be mad, but the result was emphatic.

Garcia (like Hamlet) cloaked his revenge against his naysayers in the 'madness of insanity'.

• Clarification - Ryan Garcia is currently under investigation for testing positive for steroid use by the New York Commission.