Ryan Garcia stunned the boxing world as he defeated Devin Haney by majority decision in their bitter grudge match on Saturday night.
The two bitter enemies were going head to head on a huge event in New York, with Garcia dropping his opponent several times to claim bragging rights over his long-time rival and silencing the critics who have been very vocal in the build-up.
Those critics were concerns over whether the fight should even be going ahead, after the erratic behaviour from Garcia in the build-up, along with him missing weight by 3.2lbs, meant he was ineligible to win Haney’s WBC super-lightweight title.
‘King Ry’ looked to prove those doubters wrong from the very first bell though, stunning the Barclays Center crowd when he rocked Haney in round one with a left hook.
Haney regained his composure and began to control the fight as the rounds went on, seemingly ahead on the cards as the fight approached the halfway stage.
The fight then shockingly turned in the seventh round when Garcia knocked Haney down with another huge left hook. ‘The Dream’ took plenty of punishment throughout the round but managed to survive, with ‘King Ry’ also deducted a point for hitting after the break.
It was the first time that Haney was dropped in his professional career, and he was then knocked down again in round 10 after a barrage of punches from Garcia in the corner.
Haney’s chin was in question throughout the fight, and ‘King Ry’ dropped his rival once again in round eleven as he appeared to pull away on the cards.
The fight went the distance, with the judges scoring it 112-112, 114-110, 115-109 in Garcia’s favour, handing him an incredible victory.
With 3 knockdowns, Garcia gets it on the scorecards via MD!
112-112, 114-110, 115-109.#HaneyGarcia | @DAZNBoxingpic.twitter.com/JaBAOPlplt
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) April 21, 2024
Garcia said: “I’ve been boxing my whole life. I fought him six times and I knew what I could do. I knew I had control [after the knockdown]. It’s hard to recover from big shots. My conditioning wasn’t the best but I got the job done.”
Haney said: “I’m disappointed with my performance. He caught me early by surprise. We trained for it but I fell asleep and he caught me with it. I wasn’t that hurt. I thought the referee let him turn his back too much. I thought it was a close fight. I would love the rematch.”
In the co-main event, there was an extremely controversial win for Arnold Barboza, who defeated Sean McComb by split decision.
It looked that McComb had done enough to win after an impressive performance throughout the ten rounds, but the judges shockingly awarded the verdict to Barboza, much to the anger of thousands of fans on social media who branded the result a ‘robbery.’
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