The ring always reveals the truth, and it was while standing in there that Ryan Garcia – finally – revealed what eight weeks of wacky behavior had left us all to wonder.
“Come on guys, you really thought I was crazy?” Garcia asked the masses who viewed his stunning three-knockdown majority decision victory over previously unbeaten Devin Haney at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
“You done lost your own mind.”
Producing perhaps the most masterful, twisted display of possum since Muhammad Ali’s famed rope-a-dope on George Foreman, the 25-year-old Garcia (25-1) set aside two months of odd behavior indicating a psychological meltdown and repeatedly unleashed a left hook that Haney (31-1) simply could not avoid.
“I’m disappointed by my performance,” said Haney, who started the night as a -800 betting favorite. “He caught me by surprise. I fell asleep on the left hook.”
Knowing his opponent so well after six bouts as amateurs, Garcia delivered what few thought he was capable of following the bizarre behavior and social-media posts he displayed since the fight’s announcement.
Signs of his expected demise intensified Friday morning when Garcia missed the 140-pound title fight limit by a shocking 3.2 pounds, eliminating his chances of winning the WBC belt he’d so long craved and costing him a potential $1.5 million bet he’d made with Haney over missing weight.
Even on fight night, Garcia stayed in character, inviting a group of violinists to play for him in his locker room and putting his gloves on a full two hours before the first bell.
“They played violins on the Titanic, too,” one of the DAZN broadcasters cracked.
When Brooklyn’s own Mike Tyson ducked in to greet Garcia, he had to talk over the violins.
And yet, Garcia dramatically made his ring walk – the curiosity peaking over just how he’d be dismantled by the sophisticated, dedicated, former undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney – and he suddenly transformed back to the fast-handed power puncher that earned this opportunity by rising from the humble outpost of Victorville, Calif., and building his resume at Coachella Valley desert casinos.
The expert thinking by those who’d watched Garcia’s apparent training-camp downfall was that he had no other option but to empty his tank in the early rounds Saturday night, because he clearly hadn’t invested in conditioning (see the missed weight) and had no chance to match the acumen and ring IQ of Haney over 12 rounds.
Boy, were we wrong.
Garcia blasted Haney’s jaw with two massive left hands in the first round, rocking the champion and leaving him on unsteady legs he hadn’t experienced since an 11th-round blow by Jorge Linares three years ago.
“Roll up under the hook,” Haney’s father and trainer, Bill Haney, told him between rounds.
And Haney found himself as Garcia eased off the gas for the next few rounds, reverting to the “crazy like a fox” personality by fighting on his back foot and luring Haney into a false sense of security.
Another hard left to the head in the seventh round dropped Haney for the first time in his career, and while Garcia drew a one-point deduction from referee Harvey Dock for punching on the break as Haney sought to hold on and recover, Garcia let his hammer hand fly repeatedly during the round.
Frankly, it looked like Garcia dropped Haney twice more in the round, but Dock ruled them slips.
“I knew I had control,” Garcia said. “It’s hard to recover from big shots.”
In the 10th, a power combination punctuated by a left to the head dropped Haney again, and even though judge Max DeLuca saw the bout as a 112-112 even affair, Garcia iced his victory by sending Haney down for a third time in the 11th round.
“My left hook is my left hook,” Garcia said. “That’s blessed by God. Whenever I land it, it can put you down or out.”
The other scorecards had Garcia winning 114-110 and 115-109.
He didn’t have the belt, but he restored the credibility he lost by missing weight, by acting the fool throughout the promotion and by taking a knee in his lightweight-title TKO loss to Gervonta “Tank” Davis last April.
Garcia apologized to his manager, Guadalupe Valencia, and his promoters Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins for sitting them on the recent roller coaster.
During it, there were calls for the New York State Athletic Commission to put Garcia through a battery of mental-health tests following a prior career break he took to tend to his mental health.
During that period, another state’s regulator told BoxingScene he didn’t expect that to be an obstacle to the fight.
“You know …,” the regulator said, “he’s faking.”
There was no reason to believe that until Garcia got in the ring, and reverted to form.
“I’ve been boxing my whole life, guys,” he said, expressing interest in a rematch with Haney.
Haney, of course, would be a fool to take the fight if Garcia weighs in one ounce over 140 pounds the next time – $1.5 million or not.
“It was a close fight, and I gave him a shot,” Haney said. “I’m still the champion, so we can run it back.”
They’ll never be able to match what this promotion was, but at least everyone will be talking about boxing rather than all the rabbit holes that Garcia sent us chasing down this time around.