NEW YORK— Ryan Garcia knocked Devin Haney down three times and handed the WBC super lightweight champion his first loss, winning the fight by majority decision Sunday (PH time) but not the title because he was over the weight limit.
Garcia’s odd behavior in public and on social media throughout the buildup led to questions about how serious he was about this fight. It sure seemed as though he didn’t devote enough time for training when he was more than 3 pounds above the 140-pound limit on Saturday.
But the speed and power in his hands was too much for Haney, who was hurt right from the opening round and went down in the seventh, 10th and 11th.
Garcia (25-1, 20 KOs) won by scores of 115-109 and 114-110 on two of the judges’ cards, while the third had it 112-112.
The Associated Press scored it 114-110 for Garcia.
The 25-year-olds from California split six fights as amateurs, but Haney had the stronger pro career, winning the undisputed lightweight title and then moving up to win the WBC belt in his first fight at 140 pounds.
Garcia couldn’t take that, but he took Haney’s perfect record. Haney fell to 31-1.
Haney had seemingly taken his place among the best fighters in the world, while it became easy to wonder if Garcia was overhyped.
Garcia was stopped by Gervonta Davis last year in his biggest fight and expectations were he was going down again, even as he insisted he was ready to fight despite the appearance that he spent more time on the internet than in the gym.
His performance proved that.
He wobbled Haney with a big left hook in the opening round, and though Haney steadied himself and appeared to winning the middle rounds, Garcia’s power showed up again in the seventh.
A straight left set up the first knockdown and Haney struggled to regain his balance the rest of the round. He went down twice more in the round, but neither was ruled a knockdown by the referee, who also took a point from Garcia in the round for hitting on the break.
No matter. There was no denying the knockdowns in the 10th and 11th, and Garcia was able to spend most of the 12th taunting the champion. / AP