Ryan Garcia is on a serious Michael Jackson kick.
The WBC welterweight champion pulled up to David Benavidez's fight weekend last month dressed like the late King of Pop — single white glove and all — in footage that's been making the rounds online. The look landed shortly after Garcia caught Michael, Antoine Fuqua's blockbuster Jackson biopic, and the movie clearly hit harder than a left hook.
"Antoine Fuqua is my favorite director," Garcia said. "Training Day is one of my all-time favorite movies, but Michael solidified him as the GOAT."
The praise didn't stop with Fuqua, either. Garcia has spent the weeks since soundtracking his life to Jackson, running the Grammy winner’s hits across his Instagram on what feels like a loop. "This movie deeply inspired me," he said. "Michael was an icon and the best in the world at his craft. I've been listening to his music nonstop and want to bring that drive for greatness into every area of my life, from training to everything else."
Garcia is far from the only one moved by the film. Michael has been a monster at the box office, opening to a record $217 million globally before racing past $900 million worldwide. The biopic is now closing in on another milestone: becoming Lionsgate's highest-grossing movie ever.
For Fuqua, it's the latest success on a résumé that already includes some of the biggest films of the last 25 years. The director broke through making music videos, including Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise," before moving into features like The Replacement Killers, Shooter, The Magnificent Seven, and The Equalizer trilogy. Training Day, his 2001 crime thriller, earned Denzel Washington an Oscar and still stands as one of the defining films of his career.
Now Michael has handed Fuqua another massive pop-culture moment. A sequel is already being fast-tracked for a late 2026 shoot, and fans can't wait to see what he does with the next chapter of Jackson's story. He also has a long-awaited reunion with Washington on deck, a Netflix epic titled Hannibal.
