Ryan Garcia has spent the last three months leaving analysts and pundits far more concerned about his personal well-being than impressed by his boxing prowess.
With a handful of explosive left hooks, he reminded the boxing world why he is “King Ryan,” defeating WBC welterweight champion Devin Haney by majority decision Saturday night in what may have already concluded the discussion on the best fight of 2024.
“Come on, did you really think I was crazy?” Garcia shouted after the victory.
Gentle chin music 🎶
Here are the 3 reversals @RyanGarcia delivered to @Realdevinhaney to ensure victory.#HaneyGarcia pic.twitter.com/18obAwynEE
– DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) April 21, 2024
Haney entered the night as the heavy favorite, king of several weight classes and record intact. He emerged from the night with a chipped legacy.
Garcia’s preparation was immediately evident in the first minute of the first round, as he rocked Haney with a pair of explosive left hooks to rouse the crowd. He won the first round with ease, landing nine powerful punches.
From there, Haney took over with an adjustment to pick up the pace and keep the pressure on Garcia. Haney’s peppery punches kept Garcia on his back foot and it looked like the champion was about to defend directly against the enigmatic powerhouse.
And then came the seventh round.
With a similar first-round explosion that he displayed in the first, Garcia’s power connected in thunderous fashion, this time stunning the crowd by hitting Haney with a hook, giving Haney the first knockdown of his career. A stunned Haney beat the count, but was caught again and again as Garcia unleashed the power that had elevated him to prominence.
But the round turned completely chaotic shortly after, as Garcia was deducted a point for hitting on a break while Haney’s legs were wobbling like jelly. After months of concerns about his mental well-being, a mid-fight mental lapse threatened to ruin his momentum.
Garcia bided his time in the eighth and ninth rounds before proving in the 10th that his outbursts were much more than adrenaline rushes. “King Ryan” knocked Haney down again, swinging the fight entirely in his favor and suddenly making an impossibility realistic.
If that wasn’t enough, Garcia smashed a cherry on the cake in the 11th round with a third knockdown, drilling Haney with another left hook that put the champion back on the canvas and sent the Barclays Center into pandemonium.
As Haney rose to his feet and beat the count for the third time, the night was clearly over for the stunned champion, and Garcia closed out the conclusive 12th round by jumping onto the corner ropes to soak up the praise from a stunned crowd after the fight. of his life.
“I would love to play again, I gave him a chance and I’m going to take a chance in return,” Haney said after the loss.
After weighing in 3.2 pounds over the pair’s agreed-upon limit of 140 pounds, Garcia was ineligible to win Haney’s super lightweight title, but that strap may be the only element of dignity with which Haney left Brooklyn.
Garcia entered the night with simply a chance to strike, which was a far cry from the days when he rode his explosive style to becoming a household name a few years earlier.
The social media sensation looked like the real deal in the ring as he edged out Luke Campbell to win the WBC interim lightweight title in 2021 and had the potential to become the future face of the sport in the post-Mayweather era, but then saw this hype. getting knocked out after losing his undefeated mark in a superfight with compatriot Gervonta “Tank” Davis in February 2023.
In that fight, Garcia was first knocked down in the second round, then was knocked down again by Davis in the seventh round by a brutal body shot. Garcia failed to beat the count of 10, resulting in his first career loss, and was later criticized for quitting, as he stood up shortly after the bell rang.
He then faced Oscar Duarte in September and initially struggled with the inferior fighter, and was surrounded by boos from the Houston crowd before rebounding with an eighth-round knockout. After fighting at 140 pounds in 2022, Garcia fell to Davis after accepting a weight of 136 pounds, then struggled to beat Duarte – a career 135-pounder – at 143 pounds.
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These ladders gave Garcia much more trouble against Haney. As of Friday night, Garcia weighed in at 143.2 and opted to take a revised deal to continue the fight rather than try to drop the extra weight. Under the revised agreement, Garcia forfeited $600,000 of his purse and was ineligible to win the super lightweight title.
In a vociferous display of indifference, Garcia showed up at the ceremonial weigh-in later Friday drinking a beer and yelling at Haney amid a heated confrontation.
On Thursday, Haney predicted Garcia would miss weight and demanded Garcia pay him $500,000 per pound he missed. A statement from Golden Boy Promotions Friday said Garcia “will honor the handshake made yesterday during the final press conference.”
But Friday night’s debacle came as no surprise to anyone who followed Garcia’s social media posts in the build-up to this fight, making Saturday night’s outcome even more confusing.
In recent months, Garcia has claimed he was kidnapped by the Illuminati, accused Logan Paul of worshiping Satan, rejected accusations about Haney’s father, said he was the victim of a spiritual attack, said he had proof of the existence of an alien and called Elon Musk the Antichrist, among others. a host of other claims and allegations regarding social media and podcast appearances.
Garcia also announced the birth of his second child and his divorce from his wife on the same day in January. In March, Garcia accused Haney of using banned substances, said he was going to rip his ears off, then i tweeted later“My intention is to kill the devil Haney.”
All of this antics shrouded his and Haney’s boxing rise in the build-up to Saturday night.
With the loss, Haney is 32-1 and his case for being considered one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world alongside Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez is crushed.
In 2022, Haney defeated George Kambosos Jr. in a lightweight title unification match to become the first undisputed lightweight champion since Pernell Whitaker in 1990, and the first in the four-belt era. In December, Haney moved up to welterweight to fight champion Regis Prograis, whom Haney dominated with a masterful performance to become a two-division champion.
A rematch with Garcia appears to be the next order of business for Haney as he attempts to get his career back on track, but Saturday night’s loss exposed many flaws in Haney’s game and left the champion with serious questions about the courage of his chin.
In the co-main event, underdog Sean McComb was seemingly robbed by the judges as he fell via split decision to Arnold Barboza Jr., who remains undefeated. McCabe appeared to dictate the pace of the fight with his slippery defense and unattainable length, while outmuscled Barboza, according to broadcast stats.
Barboza built enough momentum in the final frames to claim victory, but he wore the history of the fight on his bruised face. The first scoreboard announced read 98-92 for McComb, but the next scoreboard shockingly read 97-93 Barboza. The final scorecard gave Barboza the lead and the fight with a score of 96-94, but there were no signs of celebration from the favorite.
In the post-fight interview, Barboza said he was not surprised by the results, but the crowd voiced their dissenting opinion with a chorus of boos.
Barboza entered the night as a replacement fighter in the main event should Garcia not show up and with an eye on a future headlining fight with Shakur Stevenson. Barboza may have emerged with a perfect record intact, but also with a bruised cheek and a tarnished reputation.
Required reading
(Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images)