Key occasions
Spherical 1
What a begin! Garcia comes out swigning, touchdown a flush proper hand on Haney then wobbling him with a left hook, sending the group into hysterics and forcing the champion to tie up. Chants of “Ry-an! Ry-an!” ring by means of the world. Haney is doing his finest to show down the temperature and begin working behind the jab.
Guardian’s unofficial rating: Haney 9-10 Garcia (Haney 9-10 Garcia)
The ultimate directions have been given, the seconds are out and we’ll decide it up with round-by-round protection from right here!
Ryan Garcia is making his option to the ring. He’s emerged from the tunnel in an all-white gown beneath a customized diamond crown to the ear-splitting strains of a three-song medley: No Little one Left Behind and Jesus Walks by Kanye West adopted by El Rey by Vincente Fernandez.
Now it’s Devin Haney, who makes his entrance to 21 Savage’s redrum in a equipment designed by the luxurious label Concern of God.
The ring announcer is presenting the fighters from the middle of the ring. No anthems tonight.
Arnold Barboza Jr has simply received a extremely controversial break up choice over Northern Eire’s Sean McComb. It was a little bit of snoozer, with lengthy intervals of inaction drawing boos from the practically full Barclays Middle crowd. However the Belfast southpaw was clearly getting the higher of the motion and the consequence got here as a shock. One ringside decide had it 98-92 for McComb whereas the opposite two scored it 96-94 and 97-93 for Barboza. (The Guardian had it 97-93 for McComb.)
The announcement of the choice was greeted with a chorus of boos and catcalls that solely grew in quantity when Barboda carried out an in-ring interview earlier than departing the world flooring. Compubox’s punch statistics reveal that Barboza landed 10-of-44 pictures per spherical after averaging 22-of-70 in his earlier seven outings.
That concludes the undercard. Haney and Garcia ought to be making their ring entrances in brief order.
Story of the tape
Right here’s a have a look at how Haney and Garcia measure up forward of tonight’s fundamental occasion. Garcia, who has a half-inch edge in peak, has extra expertise round 140lbs, with Haney having solely fought as soon as above light-weight earlier than tonight. But Haney does get pleasure from a one-inch attain benefit.
It’s essential to notice that Garcia, by coming in up to now over the restrict, probably didn’t even try and make the load, whereas Haney’s sunken options throughout struggle week urged that getting right down to 140lbs wasn’t simple for him. Nonetheless, it wasn’t sufficient to discourage Haney’s camp, who agreed to go ahead with a non-title struggle after an undisclosed monetary settlement redirecting a portion of Garcia’s purse to the champion.
Bektemir Melikuziev has simply defeated Pierre Dibombe by a technical unanimous choice. The 2016 Olympic silver medalist was having his means of issues earlier than an unintended conflict of heads opened a big gash over his left eye beneath the eyebrow. The ring physician put a cease to issues early within the eighth around the struggle went to the scorecards. All three had Melikuziev profitable comfortably by scores of 79-73 (twice) and 78-73.
That leaves another undercard struggle: Arnold Barboza Jr and Sean McComb in a scheduled 10-round junior welterweight bout. After that, Haney and Garcia will make their ringwalks.
Why tonight’s fundamental occasion shouldn’t be for the title
Should you’re questioning why tonight’s fundamental occasion has been downgraded to a non-title struggle, that’s as a result of Ryan Garcia did not make the tremendous light-weight division restrict of 140lbs. And he didn’t simply miss it by somewhat.
The challenger got here in an eye-popping 3.2lbs over behind closed doorways on Friday morning, prompting a sequence of last-minute negotiations between the camps to allow tonight’s struggle to go ahead.
Meaning Garcia will not be eligible to win Haney’s WBC title. If Haney does lose, the title will grow to be vacant.
Garcia leaned additional into the chaos on the public weigh-in, showing to chug from a beer bottle as he stepped on to the dimensions within the Barclays Middle atrium, confirming his 143.2lbs weight. Haney tipped the scales at 140lbs on the nostril.
“I used to be consuming a pleasant ass beer, that shit was fireplace,” Garcia mentioned shortly after the fighters got here collectively for a tense staredown. “I did my finest to make this weight. I put myself by means of hell.”
Mentioned Haney: “He’s very unprofessional. I instructed him yesterday his antics would betray him and that is simply the beginning.”
Preamble
Hey and welcome to Barclays Middle for tonight’s struggle between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia. We’re ringside in Brooklyn for what, at the least on paper, is a top-drawer matchup between two of America’s brightest younger boxing stars, each 25 years outdated and on the entrance of their athletic primes. However following one of the crucial uncommon build-ups to a significant struggle in latest reminiscence, outlined by Garcia’s extremely erratic habits and questions over his psychological health, it’s left many asking whether or not it ought to even be happening.
Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) unified all 4 main titles at 135lbs with a career-best win over Vasiliy Lomachenko practically a 12 months in the past, earlier than climbing to 140lbs and turning into a two-weight champion with a formidable shutout of Regis Prograis to win the WBC’s model of the tremendous light-weight title.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs), a social-media famous person with upwards of 10.5m Instagram followers with 7.5m extra on TikTok, was speculated to be combating for that strap tonight. However he got here in an eye-popping 3.2lbs over at yesterday’s weigh-in, making him ineligible to win the title. (Ought to Haney lose, the belt will grow to be vacant.)
The load debacle was the fruits of a months-long sample of unsettling habits by Garcia, each in individual and on social media. For the reason that bicoastal press tour saying the struggle the place Haney claimed to scent alcohol on his rival’s breath, Garcia’s once-polished presence on social media has descended right into a disturbing blur of conspiracy theories and obvious cries for assist, not least an X Areas stream with Andrew Tate (and subsequent tweetstorm) the place he claimed he was kidnapped by “the elites” at Bohemian Grove, the secretive Sonoma County membership for the wealthy, and “pressured to observe children getting raped”.
Owing to Garcia’s risky comportment, there have been many factors over the previous few months the place it didn’t look like we’d ever make it to struggle evening. However right here we’re. And we the fighters ought to be making their ringwalks for the principle occasion in somewhat greater than an hour’s time.
Bryan will likely be right here shortly. Within the meantime right here’s his lookahead to tonight’s fundamental occasion.