Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia will face-off in the ring Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but it won’t be the fight fans were expecting when the two signed on the dotted line. Garcia’s mental state has been the biggest issue during the fight’s promotion after the 25-year-old has increasingly shown that he’s not in the right state of mind heading into one of the biggest fights of his young career.
Concern for Golden Boy Promotion’s biggest star started to grow after the fight against Haney, the WBC super lightweight champion, was secured and Garcia began posting controversial and defamatory posts on social media. Garcia has been open about his mental health struggles in the past and even took a break from his pro boxing career to sort himself out.
Things came to a head at Friday’s weigh-in when Garcia came in 3.2 pounds above the 140-pound limit. He had made a bet with Haney during Thursday’s news conference in which he agreed to pay $500,000 for every pound he weighed in at above 140. That bet ended up costing Garcia $1.5 million dollars and Haney later tweeted that Garcia had honored the wager. Then, during the ceremonial weigh-in, Garcia appeared to chug a beer on the scale. He later tweeted, “Apple juice and sparkling water.”
How that weight miss and Garcia’s fragile mental state entering the now non-title fight affects the outcome is anyone’s guess, but the two will indeed meet in the ring Saturday night. BetMGM has Haney as the heavy favorite at -650 with Garcia at +450.
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Devin Haney vs. Ryan Garcia results
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Super lightweight: Ryan Garcia def. Devin Haney by majority decision (112-112, 114-110, 115-109)
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Super lightweight: Arnold Barboza def. Sean McComb by split decision (92-98, 96-94, 97-93)
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Super middleweight: Bektemir Melikuziev def. Pierre Dibombe by technical unanimous decision (79-73, 79-73, 78-74)
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WBA interim super flyweight title: David Jimenez def. John Ramirez by unanimous decision (117-111, 117-111, 116-112)
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Super welterweight: Charles Conwell def. Nathaniel Gallimore by TKO at 0:52 of R6
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