By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Perfect record busted.
All hail, King Ryan!
After months of verbal back-and-forth and build-up drama for their upcoming fight, Ryan Garcia showed he could walk his talk after handing Devin Haney his first-ever professional boxing loss in nine years on April 21, 2024, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn during their World Boxing Council (WBC) super lightweight bout.
Despite missing weight, making him ineligible to wear the WBC super lightweight belt as part of the consequences, Garcia still put on a show in front of the thousands in attendance in Brooklyn.
Garcia earned a majority decision victory over Haney after two judges scored it 114-110, 115-109, while the other scored a tie, 112-112.
It was perhaps Garcia’s biggest professional boxing win so far in his young career and bounced back big time after suffering a demoralizing loss to Gervonta “Tank” Davis last year.
Garcia was in the zone from the get-go, unleashing his signature snappy jabs that kept on landing at will to Haney’s jaw.
On the other hand, Haney looked slow in reacting to Garcia’s lightning-quick jabs and was too stagnant in the first three rounds.
All hell then broke loose in the seventh round after Garcia scored the first knockdown of the fight at the 2:13 mark with a devastating left hand.
Garcia tried to haunt Haney and aimed for a knockout but the slippery champion circled around the ring to avoid further damage.
It was then all Garcia in the last five rounds after notching two more knockdowns, one in the 10th and the last in the 11th round, all via left hooks.
With the win, Garcia just improved his record to 25 wins, 20 knockouts, and a loss, while Haney dropped to 31 wins, 15 knockouts, and a loss.
