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The challenger came in an eye-popping 3.2lbs over behind closed doors on Friday morning, prompting a series of last-minute negotiations between the camps to enable tonight’s fight to go forward.
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That means Garcia will no longer be eligible to win Haney’s WBC title. If Haney does lose, the title will become vacant.
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Garcia leaned further into the chaos at the public weigh-in, appearing to chug from a beer bottle as he stepped on to the scale in the Barclays Center atrium, confirming his 143.2lbs weight. Haney tipped the scales at 140lbs on the nose.
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“I was drinking a nice ass beer, that shit was fire,” Garcia said shortly after the fighters came together for a tense staredown. “I did my best to make this weight. I put myself through hell.”
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Said Haney: “He’s very unprofessional. I told him yesterday his antics would betray him and this is just the start.”
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Hello and welcome to Barclays Center for tonight’s fight between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia. We’re ringside in Brooklyn for what, at least on paper, is a top-drawer matchup between two of America’s brightest young boxing stars, both 25 years old and at the front of their athletic primes. But following one of the most unusual build-ups to a major fight in recent memory, defined by Garcia’s highly erratic behavior and questions over his mental fitness, it’s left many asking whether it should even be taking place.
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Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) unified all four major titles at 135lbs with a career-best win over Vasiliy Lomachenko nearly a year ago, before climbing to 140lbs and becoming a two-weight champion with an impressive shutout of Regis Prograis to win the WBC’s version of the super lightweight title.
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Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs), a social-media superstar with upwards of 10.5m Instagram followers with 7.5m more on TikTok, was supposed to be fighting for that strap tonight. But he came in an eye-popping 3.2lbs over at yesterday’s weigh-in, making him ineligible to win the title. (Should Haney lose, the belt will become vacant.)
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The weight debacle was the culmination of a months-long pattern of unsettling behavior by Garcia, both in person and on social media. Since the bicoastal press tour announcing the fight where Haney claimed to smell alcohol on his rival’s breath, Garcia’s once-polished presence on social media has descended into a disturbing blur of conspiracy theories and apparent cries for help, not least an X Spaces stream with Andrew Tate (and subsequent tweetstorm) where he claimed he was kidnapped by “the elites” at Bohemian Grove, the secretive Sonoma County club for the rich, and “forced to watch kids getting raped”.
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Owing to Garcia’s volatile comportment, there were many points over the past few months where it didn’t seem like we’d ever make it to fight night. But here we are. And we the fighters should be making their ringwalks for the main event in a little more than an hour’s time.
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important events
Bektemir Melikuziev just defeated Pierre Dibombe by technical unanimous decision. The 2016 Olympic silver medalist was having her way until an accidental head collision left her with a large gash under her left eye and eyebrow. The ring doctor stopped things early in the eighth round when the bout was contested on scorecards. Melikuziev won all three matches with scores of 79-73 (twice) and 78-73.
There is now one undercard match left. A 10-round junior welterweight bout is scheduled between Arnold Barboza Jr. and Sean McComb. After this, Haney and Garcia will do a ring walk.
Why tonight’s main event isn’t about the title
If you’re wondering why tonight’s main event was relegated to a non-title fight, it’s because Ryan Garcia couldn’t make the super lightweight limit of 140 pounds. And he didn’t just miss it a little bit.
The challenger went in behind closed doors on Friday morning at an eye-popping 3.2 pounds over the top, leading to a series of last-minute negotiations between the sides to move tonight’s fight forward.
That means Garcia will no longer be eligible to win Haney’s WBC title. If Haney loses, the title will become vacant.
Garcia leans further into the chaos of the public weigh-in, appearing to chug a beer bottle as he steps on the scale in the Barclays Center atrium, confirming he weighs 143.2 pounds. Haney’s nose weighed 140 pounds.
“I had a good beer. That was fire,” Garcia said shortly after the fighters gathered for a tense staredown. “I tried my best to achieve this weight. I went through hell.”
Haney said: “He is so unprofessional. I told him yesterday that his antics would fail him and this was just the beginning.”
preamble
Hello. Welcome to Barclays Center for tonight’s game between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia. We’re ringside in Brooklyn, watching a top-flight matchup between two of America’s brightest young boxing stars, both 25 years old and in their athletic primes, at least on paper. But following one of the most unusual developments to a big fight in recent memory, defined by Garcia’s highly erratic behavior and questions about his mental state, many are calling it quits. I’m wondering if I should do it.
Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) unified all four major titles at 135 pounds with a career-best win over Vasily Lomachenko about a year ago, then moved up to 140 pounds and shut out Regis Prograis. He won and became a two-division champion. WBC version of super lightweight title.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs), a social media superstar with more than 10.5 million followers on Instagram and another 7.5 million on TikTok, was supposed to compete for the strap tonight. However, at yesterday’s weigh-in, he was an astonishing 3.2 pounds overweight, making him ineligible for the title. (If Haney loses, the belt will be vacant.)
The weight fiasco was the culmination of months of disturbing behavior by Garcia both personally and on social media.Garcia’s once-sophisticated presence on social media has fallen into a state of unsettling turmoil since Haney claimed he could smell alcohol on his rival’s breath during the bicoastal press tour announcing the fight. Conspiracy theories and obvious cries for helpAmong other things, in his X Spaces stream (and subsequent tweetstorm) with Andrew Tate, he he claimed to have been kidnapped They were “forced to watch children being raped” by the “elites” of Bohemian Grove, a secret club for the wealthy in Sonoma County.
There have been many times over the past few months where it seemed like we wouldn’t be able to make it to a night game because of Garcia’s erratic behavior. But here we are. And we fighters should be doing our ring walk for the main event in a little over an hour.
Brian will be here soon. In the meantime, here’s his outlook on tonight’s main event.
