Crazy as a fox: Ryan Garcia drops Devin Haney three times, wins majority decision

Boxers say and do a lot of stupid things, and for the last few months, that's exactly what Ryan Garcia did.

But when it mattered most, Garcia stood and delivered the performance of a lifetime.

His looks, his relationship with the fans and his accessibility made him a star, but it was his left hook and his punching power that made him a winner on Saturday in a potential Fight of the Year battle with Devin Haney at the Barclays Center Saturday in Brooklyn. Garcia knocked Haney down three times, had him in serious trouble multiple other times, and won a majority decision in their bout that was supposed to be for Haney's WBC super lightweight title.

Max DeLuca scored it even, 112-112, but Garcia won by scores of 114-110 on the card of Eric Marlinski and 115-110 on Robin Taylor's. KevinIole.com favored Garcia, 113-111.

Garcia didn't get the title because he missed weight Friday by 3^1/4 pounds, coming in at 143.25, but the belt clearly didn't matter. 

He suffered slings and arrows from every corner, including this one, for what unquestionably was odd behavior in the fight's build-up. He was in a nightclub on Monday, and at Thursday's news conference, he spoke of his faith in God but only moments later told someone in the audience he'd put his dick into his mouth.

It was crude and bizarre stuff, but it didn't have anything to do with the fight. When it mattered, for the 36 minutes when the world was watching, Garcia was the better man.

"You guys really thought I was crazy?" a beaming Garcia shrieked in the ring, only moments after the biggest win of his career was determined.

It raised tensions everywhere. Even publicist Jane Murcia of Golden Boy, which promotes Garcia, got into it, throwing shade in my direction after I suggested shortly before the fight Garcia could quit.

Haney promoter Eddie Hearn was doing a television interview after the fight in which he'd just praised Garcia when Garcia's father, Henry, walked past. Henry Garcia shouted at Hearn, and they exchanged curses. But when Henry Garcia learned Hearn had just praised his son, the two quickly embraced.

it was the kind of fight, and promotion, that stirred passions.

On paper, Garcia had advantages in speed and power and Haney had the edge in boxing ability and ring IQ, and that's how it played out. Haney was hurt by one of the first punches Garcia landed, a hook right on the chin, as Garcia followed up on his pre-fight promise to head to the center of the ring and slug it out toe-to-toe.

"He caught me early when I was sleeping on it," Haney said of Garcia's hook. "He caught me by surprise. I fell asleep on the left hook. We trained for it, but I fell asleep and he caught me with it."

It was quickly obvious that Haney couldn't hang with Garcia in a slugfest. One of the sport's best defensive fighters, Haney seemingly couldn't get out of the way of the left hook. Garcia dropped him with it, or began the sequence that dropped him, in the seventh, the 10th and the 11th rounds. He hurt him numerous other times.

Haney's inability to neutralize Garcia's hook turned out to be the difference in the fight. Haney boxed well in the first half of the fight and used a punishing jab to slow Garcia's assault and take the lead in the fight. Garcia went long stretches in the first half of the bout where he threw very few punches, and questions about his conditioning came to the fore.

"You know, maybe my conditioning wasn't my best, but at the end of the day, I got the job done," Garcia said later.

The fight changed for good in the seventh. Garcia clipped Haney with a left hook and put him down. Haney got up on unsteady legs and with two minutes left, survival was a huge challenge. Haney was hanging on, trying to burn clock, and as referee Harvey Dock separated them, Garcia hit Haney. Dock immediately deducted a point from Garcia,neutralizing the gain from the knockdown.

As it turned out, the point deduction only kept him from a unanimous decision win. And Garcia may have been cheated out of at least one and maybe two more knockdowns in the seventh. Haney was clutching and grabbing at Garcia and twice more went down in the seventh, but Dock ruled them slips. In each case, Garcia had landed a blow before Haney went down.

That, though, played no role because Garcia closed the show like a champion. Because he missed weight, he couldn't win the belt. The WBC decided on Friday that Haney wouldn't lose it regardless of the result, so Haney left as the champion with the WBC belt in tow.

Garcia had the win, which was much more meaningful.

He knew he had stirred up a lot in the fight's build-up, but it paid off in the end. He said at the post-fight news conference that he drank a lot in the days leading up to the fight.

"I put them through hell this camp," Garcia said of members of his team. "I've got to give you guys credit. You went through it."

So, too, did Haney. They'd split six fights in the amateurs, but Haney pointed out that the professional ranks are different and he was the epitome of calm in the build-up.

Power is a difference maker, though, and most of it in this battle was on the Garcia side. A rematch is likely, and given the entertaining nature of the bout and the unexpected outcome -- Haney was around an 8-1 favorite -- will make the second one bigger financially.

Who knows how Garcia will comport himself the second time around? As long as he has that hand speed and the power behind the left hook, though, he's always going to be a problem for Haney.