Ryan Garcia feels he should have knocked Devin Haney out instead of defeating him by majority decision, but he places at least some of the blame on referee Harvey Dock.
Garcia didn’t complain about getting the nomination and suffering the first loss of his pro career to Haney, but admitted the finish would have been sweeter. He set the tone in the opening round by surprising Haney with an oversized left hook, but Garcia took him down three times and effectively won.
The first knockdown came in the seventh round, but the advantage on the scorecards was almost immediately negated by a point deduction from Garcia for a punch after Doc paused the action and called for a break. Instead of being punished, he feels Garcia should have allowed Haney to continue until he was permanently ousted.
“At the end of the day, Harvey Dock, I think he was tripping,” Garcia said after the game. “He should have stopped that fight. That was bad. [Haney] It really hurt. I didn’t feel well.I saw Bill too. [Haney], I said, “Brother, you better not do this.” He didn’t, and that’s it.
“That guy was holding me for dear life. I felt an opportunity to keep swinging while my hands were free, so I hit him. [Dock] I took the point when I beat him. But he hugged me. I should have knocked him out in that seventh round. They stole it from me. ”
Even at that moment, Garcia admitted he was confused by the referee’s actions.
“That was crazy,” Garcia said. “I’ve never seen such a son of a bitch before. He was holding him and me. [punched] He and he were hurt and I was like, ‘Yeah! end! Oh, did you get the points?
Despite receiving the penalty, Garcia continued to inflict more punishment, receiving two more knockdowns in the 10th and 11th rounds for the victory.
Garcia looks back on his performance and believes he could have done better, but he had a singular purpose – to get rid of Haney – and it really cost him.
“Is this the moment to stop him?” Garcia said of his first thought after dropping Haney in seven rounds. “That’s all I was thinking. I shouldn’t have put so much pressure on myself to stop him. Because every time I hurt him, I went crazy. To finish him off. I couldn’t do it.
“I was surprised he had that much heart and resilience. I beat him in the first round and I thought it was over. It feels like a win. Easy work. Then he beat me. He even hurt me with the hook. Oh, maybe he has some power, I thought.
Garcia entered the fight as a heavy underdog, with some sportsbooks listing Haney as an 8-1 favorite to win, but that wasn’t how things played out Saturday.
Immediately after the fight, Garcia stated that he would be willing to accept a rematch, and Haney said the same after suffering the first loss of his career.
However, once the fight cooled down, Garcia admitted that his body had been through a lot as he tried to get down to 140 pounds in preparation for the fight. In the end, Garcia actually dropped his weight by 3.2 pounds, but the bout still went ahead as scheduled.
After this fight, Garcia isn’t looking to move down to 140 pounds, and it’s questionable whether Haney will be able to make enough weight to pursue a rematch with Garcia. The same goes for Gervonta Davis, who gave Garcia his only career loss when he made the unfortunate decision to drop down to 136 pounds to face “Tank” and ultimately finished with a brutal body shot in the seventh round. caused a loss. round.
“I don’t think Tank can beat Frank Martin, but even if he did, he wouldn’t fight me because I’m up there,” Garcia said. “I’m not doing 140. I’m going to 147. I can’t do fucking 140. I’ve technically never even fought at 140. I’ve fought at 143 every time. My body literally can’t go below 143.” . That’s not possible. I tried every technique. Can not do that. ”
Garcia, who plans to move up in weight, had at least one name in mind as a potential opponent, but nothing has been finalized yet.
“I had a vision to fight. [Sebastian] Fandura at 154 [pounds]” Garcia said. “I don’t know why, but I feel like I could knock him out. I know it’s really, really random. I feel like I could win the title at 154.
“I’ve fought guys that big before and I’ve knocked them out in sparring. Cold, they slept. I’d love to try that. Shout out Fandula, excuse me. there is no.”
