WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson has offered his thoughts on last weekend’s shock win for Ryan Garcia, where he defeated Devin Haney by majority decision and put an end to the WBC super-lightweight champion’s undefeated record.
Garcia was ruled out by almost every fight fan ahead of the contest but managed to score three knockdowns against a champion that had never been dropped, dominating the bout but ultimately being unable to claim the world title after failing to make weight.
As a result, some fans are accrediting Garcia’s win to the advantage that he had during rehydration after coming in overweight, whilst others are admitting that he is quite simply better than they thought and that Haney is perhaps not the fighter they felt he was.
However, in an interview with Cigar Talk, Stevenson empathised with Haney despite their rivalry and explained what he believes went wrong in the fight, both mentally and tactically.
“Nowadays they call us boring for doing that [boxing and moving]. I feel like he [Haney] got caught up in that and I think that [performance] was more so like he was caught up in the moment and wanted to please the fans.
“But the same fans that you are sitting there trying to please, at the end of the day, is the same f***ing people that are sitting there trying to s**t on that n***a and they should be respecting that n***a for [doing] something that they said they wanted him to do.”
“Right then and there Devin should’ve been [thinking] ‘let’s box and move, let’s beat this mo*********er with this beautiful jab that we got. We have got a beautiful jab and this is what works. Let’s make him look for us, make him find me, confuse him’.
“I felt like it just felt like Ryan was the boxer and that Devin was the aggressor coming forward, whilst Ryan was the one boxing and picking his spots and making Devin look for him. I didn’t like that, I think that was a bad game plan.
“Another thing that I saw too was that he didn’t keep his f***ing right-hand at home. He kept pushing his hand out to catch the jab, but we know that Ryan ain’t really the best jabber – it is really the hook that he needed to be worried about.”
Ryan Garcia is now pursuing a move up to welterweight where he will hopefully be able to truly challenge Jaron Ennis for the IBF world title – and be able to keep the belt if he is victorious – whereas Haney is left contemplating if he too should move up to 147lbs.
Meanwhile, Stevenson is expected to take on Artem Harutyunyan on July 6th in his hometown of Newark, New Jersey in what will be his first defence of the lightweight world title.
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