Fighter of the Month: Ryan Garcia can't be ignored in spite of missing weight
This isn’t a reward for Ryan Garcia.
The enigmatic 140-pound contender missed weight by an embarrassing 3-plus pounds for his fight against Devin Haney on April 20 in Brooklyn, New York, which was an inexcusable misstep.
We can only hope that Garcia and those who might emulate him don’t make a habit of flouting the rules, which are meant in part to protect fighters.
That said, Garcia’s ability to bend the boxing world to his will and his remarkable performance against Haney can’t be ignored. He simply has to be the Boxing Junkie Fighter of the Month for April for the way he single-handily turned the sport upside down.
His behavior in the lead-up to the fight was either insane or brilliant or a combination of both, although he claimed afterward that it was all an act. The fact is the social media star knows how to market himself, which in this case made the fight Haney much more compelling than it would’ve been otherwise.
His conduct reminded me of Muhammad Ali’s well-documented antics before his first fight with Sonny Liston. People thought Ali was nuts, too, although he didn’t go as far over the top as Garcia did.
And Garcia’s performance in the ring was nothing short of astonishing. Many feared for his well being against his pound-for-pound opponent given what appeared to the underdog’s emotional instability, but, in the end, they should’ve been worried about Haney.
Garcia, his lethal left hook on full display, stunned the titleholder and the boxing world by putting Haney down three times and winning a majority decision.
Again, we must be careful about showering Garcia with praise given his unprofessionalism. And the added weight certainly didn’t hurt him.
At the same time, Haney, obviously feeling invincible after a series of impressive victories, agreed to go through with the fight after Garcia agreed to honor a bet by paying him $500,000 for each pound he was over the weight limit.
And we saw what we saw, a 7-1 underdog with supposed limited skills take down one of the most talented, hottest fighters in the world in dominating fashion to bolster his status as one of the sport’s biggest stars.
We’ll never forget Garcia’s failure to make weight, which we hope was a lesson learned. We’ll also never forget what he did to Haney.