Ryan Garcia defeats Devin Haney with three knock-downs in ‘craziest fight ever’

Ryan Price

The troubled star dominated all twelve rounds in Brooklyn.

Ryan Garcia produced a commanding performance to beat Devin Haney in one of the most ‘chaotic’ fights boxing fans have seen in a long time.

The atmosphere at the bout, which took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, was electric following strong exchanges between both fighters in the build up and a bizarre weigh-in on Friday in which Garcia came in well over the 140-pound limit.

Garcia, who has had something of a public meltdown over social media in recent weeks, landed a left hook just seconds after the bell had rung and had Haney wobbling. This sent the crowd into a frenzy and set the tone for the remaining rounds to come.

Tensions couldn’t have been higher going into last night’s fight, after Garcia threatened to ‘bite’ or ‘kill’ Haney during the press conference days before, and the two almost came to blows after Haney pushed Garcia in the face during a press shoot atop the Empire State Building earlier this week.

That incident led to the New York Mets cancelling plans to have both fighters throw the first pitch at their game later that evening.

25-year-old Garcia continued to taunt and torment Haney over the next few rounds, and knocked him to the floor in round seven.

Haney was on the canvas again four rounds later, shadowed by the image of Garcia celebrating prematurely in front of the crowd atop the turnbuckle.

Garcia used round 12 as an opportunity to showboat, sticking his tongue out at Haney and shuffling his feet.

Despite three knockdowns, fans were in suspense as the referees tallied up their scorecards following the final bell.

In the end, one judge couldn’t separate them but the other two had Garcia by four points and six points to Garcia.

Unfortunately for Garcia, having come in 3lbs overweight ahead of the fight, there was no WBC super lightweight belt to be raised aloft at the end of it all.

Instead, he had a crown put on his head by his father and trainer Henry Garcia as his name was announced as the winner.

After one of the wildest press runs and build up in boxing history, many fight fans had things to say on Twitter, both during and after the spectacle.

One person wrote: “Fight of the year so far.”

Another posted: “You guys actually thought Ryan Garcia was gonna lose to this guy?”