Last weekend Ryan Garcia silenced his doubters with a generational performance, dominating Devin Haney on the way to a majority-decision win. However, the victory does certainly have an asterisk attached, although not in the eyes of his father.
Garcia seemed too sharp and too powerful against Haney from the opening bell onwards, scoring three knockdowns against the WBC super-lightweight champion who had never hit the deck before.
Yet, despite the win, ‘King Ry’ will not claim the 140lb belt as a result of him missing the weight limit by over three pounds on Friday’s weigh-in.
It is because of this that some sceptics are accrediting the win to Haney’s inexperienced decision to go ahead with the fight – regardless of the weight disadvantage, rather than due to the skill of the man who was supposed to be the challenger, leading to demands of a rematch either for Haney’s belt or up at a more comfortable weight of 147lbs.
Although, speaking to ThaBoxingVoice, Garcia’s father and coach Henry Garcia, shockingly accused Haney of weighing in 15 pounds heavier than Ryan on fight night, following on from accusations of ‘The Dream’ using I.V. drips and other suspicious methods to make weight in the past.
“They are going to come out with this excuse of ‘well, Ryan was 3.2lbs over’, you have got to get over that. Devin came in 15lbs heavier than Ryan inside of the ring, so now what?
“Don’t come out with this excuse, the bottom line is that he got a beatdown, we knew he was going to get a beatdown and the reason why Devin became undisputed and all of that other stuff is because he got there first.”
Haney famously piled on 25 pounds overnight for his showdown with Regis Prograis back in December, stepping through the ropes for the 140lb title at an unbelievable 165lbs.
Similarly, for the Garcia fight, the champion looked uneasy on the scales – a sight which boxing fans are becoming uncomfortably accustomed to – yet on the Saturday he appeared to be in top condition due to their being no rehydration clause in the contract.
Still, plenty of people suggest that Garcia could have intentionally missed weight and that he appeared bigger than Haney on fight night, but a move to welterweight suggests that Haney will only get the chance to prove the sceptics right if he decides to vacate his belt and following his rival up.
For now it appears as though Garcia is focussed on truly challenging for a world title for the first time eyeing up IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
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