Lucas Jones
In what will likely be a leading contender for both surprise and fight of the year, Ryan Garcia erased almost all negative expectations after an absurd pre-fight promo to knock down undefeated Devin Haney three times en route to a decision victory in the majority on Saturday. .
Even with Garcia, who lost weight by more than three pounds in a manner that seemed premeditated, making himself ineligible to win the WBC 140-pound title that Haney won, the fallout from the victory creates a huge ripple effect in and around the sport more exciting. junior welterweight division moving forward.
Let’s take a closer look at what we learned after an unexpected and truly memorable night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
1. Ryan Garcia’s behavior was bizarre and obnoxious… but it worked
In what must go down as one of the most effective troll jobs in the history of modern sports, let alone boxing, the 25-year-old Garcia convinced Haney and the entire boxing world that he had gone mad in more ways than one, which took a long time. long way for Haney to become an 8-1 underdog. For months, Garcia acted angrily and recklessly in almost every way, forcing columnists (like me) to openly question whether he was fit to compete or whether record promoters were prioritizing profit over humanity. Turns out we were all wrong. Incredibly wrong. That doesn’t mean we owe Garcia an apology, even though he worked.
There were key parts of Garcia’s maneuvering during fight week that threatened to tarnish his reputation for years to come. But the ultimate intention worked as Garcia had hoped: Haney admitted after the fight that he ignored the threat of Garcia’s vaunted left hook, as he more or less expected a Garcia collapse to be inevitable, given that his initial attack was inevitably disciplined. by the most technical fighter. What we didn’t expect was the level of balance with which Garcia operated. The biggest hook of all that Garcia got, however, was how much he seemed to benefit from the instruction of new trainer Derrick James, who barely spoke before the fight while Garcia took away all the focus. of his preparations while routinely presenting himself as if he were in the midst of a mental breakdown. Again, it was crude enough that any boxing purist could only hope that a breakout of copycat behavior didn’t follow. But it worked.
“I was just having fun, you know, I’m going through a lot,” Garcia said after the fight about his antics. “I went through a divorce, a lot of shit has happened to me in [my outside life]. I did what I felt I needed to do to feel good.”
2. Garcia clearly learned from the Gervonta Davis defeat
Although Garcia lent his star power to Davis last April, when the two combined for a box office hit that far exceeded pay-per-view sales expectations, Davis used his influence as an A-side to work on a rehydration clause, which compromised the chin and body. In hindsight, one can see how much Garcia learned from the negative fallout in which everyone, including Garcia’s prosecutor, Oscar De La Hoya, criticized him for giving in so much at the negotiating table. So, instead of trying to force a similar contractual stipulation on Haney, who entered as an A-side because he was champion, Garcia chose to forcibly remove the weight for the way he frivolously missed the weight, which led to a $600,000 fine. Knowing that Haney is big for the division and was newly rehydrated to 25 kilos when he won the Regis Prograis title in December, Garcia’s decision to risk embarrassment (who saw him drink a beer on the scale of Friday’s ceremonial weigh-in to further question his motives) turned out to be pivotal in the long run. Not only did Garcia not put too much stress on his body to make the 140-pound limit, but he was more fresh in the second half when he rallied to score knockdowns in rounds 10 and 11 to provide enough cushion to steal the decision. in a fight in which he was vastly outmatched outside of the rounds, he scored knockdowns.
3. Both fighters’ immediate reputations took dramatic blows
In a sport like boxing, where top stars only perform twice a year and you are only considered as good as your last performance in the public eye, Garcia’s turnaround drastically changed both fighters’ reputations. Not only will Garcia’s dangerous antics be hailed as genius in the future, giving him justification to act even bolder in the future, but victory will instantly put him in the driver’s seat as the biggest star of the moment in and around the world. 140-pound division. . Garcia, who revealed after the fight that he hopes to campaign at 147 pounds from now on (citing difficulties in even reaching 143 for this fight), can choose any big-name opponent he wants for his next fight. While an immediate rematch with Haney remains a great option, the biggest thing Garcia accomplished tonight was maintaining the respect as an elite fighter, which was nearly extinguished by the ease with which Davis treated him last year (and would likely never resurface if he lost to Haney after such a bizarre few months). And on the other hand, the consequences already seem quite extreme for Haney, as those who questioned his punching power already feel justified in doing so. But what about those who made the top five on the pound-for-pound list? As perfect as Haney looked as a pro who already seemed on his way to Hall of Fame inevitability, it was his surprising inability to avoid Garcia’s only weapon that will call into question just how good he really is. While much of this overreaction is likely unfair, especially since the chin and heart Haney showed against Garcia continues to be ignored, the justifications for such a belief already exist. Haney was expected to handle Garcia with ease regardless of his mental state, and was unable to hurt or slow him down before being lucky to survive when the final bell rang.
“He caught me early when I was sleeping on him,” Haney said after the fight. “He caught me by surprise. I fell asleep on the left hook. We trained for that, but I went in there and fell asleep and he caught me. I was more surprised than hurt, I wasn’t that hurt.” .”
4. The surprise win marks an incredible turnaround for Golden Boy Promotions
Years after losing boxing’s biggest star, Canelo Alvarez, following a bitter divorce, some were only too happy to end De La Hoya’s promotional company’s obituary, while predicting he was pushing Garcia into a fight he had no real chance of. . to win. And to be fair, a stoppage loss would have been disastrous for Garcia in a way that could only have compounded financial fears for Golden Boy’s future. Instead, Garcia completed the ultimate gamble of destroying hopes of challenging Rolando Romero for the title he previously held, only to double down when facing Haney amid a chorus of critics wondering whether De La Hoya was actively discounting Garcia. Not only is Garcia’s future extremely bright, but De La Hoya brings his co-promoter status behind the undefeated Jaime Munguia to a May 4 PPV showdown against Alvarez in Las Vegas, which is expected to be one of the biggest fights in the sport in 2024. De La Hoya is a lot of things to a lot of different people in the boxing world, and not all of them are good. But the “Golden Boy” is first and foremost a sports survivor as he continues to find ways to bring positive life back to his eponymous brand.
5. No matter how imperfect Garcia remains, the improvement is there
Garcia’s frightening hand speed and left hook will get most of the headlines when it comes to how he was able to upset a fighter with Haney’s skill and experience. But Garcia doesn’t come close to winning the fight the way he did, without showing incredible maturity and balance compared to the last one, five months ago. James, who entered his second fight with Garcia after several years of coaching the young fighter’s roulette, certainly deserves a lot of respect for helping Garcia minimize the kind of defensive lapses and technical mishaps that threatened to derail many of his biggest victories. Garcia showed patience in not rushing to try to finish Haney after hurting him with a left hook in the first round. He was also more responsible defensively throughout and never imploded or made a critical error each time Haney was able to sustain success. Garcia also never lost his cool, even when referee Harvey Dock made things difficult in round 7 when he hit Garcia, without warning, for hitting the counter and seemed very liberal in policing Haney’s desperate attempts to hold on.
