Garcia badly misses weight for Haney bout, losing title shot and $1.5m bet
Ryan Garcia has spectacularly failed to make weight for his world super lightweight championship fight with Devin Haney, prompting a series of last-minute negotiations between the camps to enable Saturday’s bout at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center to be staged as a non-title fight.
Garcia weighed 143.2lbs behind closed doors on Friday morning, an eye-popping 3.2lbs above the division limit, ahead of a ceremonial weigh-in open to the public later in the day.
The fight will go forward after the sides came to an undisclosed financial agreement redirecting a portion of Garcia’s purse to Haney. But Garcia will no longer be eligible to win Haney’s WBC title. Should Haney lose, the belt will become vacant.
The debacle will do little to assuage ongoing concerns over the mental fitness of Garcia, whose erratic behavior in person and on social media has almost entirely overshadowed the promotion. As the news spread on Friday morning, the 25-year-old Orange County native fired off a series of tweets afterward implying that he never intended to make the contracted weight, an effective confession of unsportsmanlike conduct.
“I feel great and I got a 3 pound advantage,” Garcia wrote. “Winners do what they have to do I’m still sharp.”
Garcia’s issues making the super lightweight limit first surfaced ahead of his December win over Oscar Duarte, which took place at 143lbs after it was initially contracted for 140lbs.
Haney has prodded Garcia throughout the run-up to Saturday’s fight, predicting that he would not be able to make the limit. At Thursday’s final press conference, Haney dared Garcia to pay him $500,000 per pound if he missed the weight. Garcia, despite apparent protests from his father and trainer seated alongside him, accepted the wager.
A Golden Boy Promotions statement said Garcia will “honor the handshake made at the final press conference yesterday”.
Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) confirmed the $1.5m windfall, tweeting: “Ryan honored the 500k per pound.”
