Haney vs Garcia

[Kirkland Laing]

7th Garcia 10-7. Massive round Ryan and one that I scored 10-7 with the damage Haney was showing and how literally rubber his legs were. Argument can be made for 2nd kd but ruled slip. The point deduct was on Ryan clearly hit on the break, he put himself in that position. What get's lost is that even if ref "helped" Haney in round he also ignored Garcia running ring center after kd, out of neutral corner while counting. A favoring ref would have stopped action, walked him back, admonish etc. Talk about giving extra time. Ryan ends round zero punching his hands were at his knees, standing there. He was looking for wind.

I watched a couple of rounds again but mainly the seventh. The ref kept Haney in the fight here. He spent the seventh and other times Haney was shaken and holding calling for them to break but he never physically broke them. Taking a point without a warning and not taking a point for the endless holding is bad enough but letting Haney cling on without braking them when Haney was one punch away from being knocked out was shocking. I mean he's giving Haney every chance to get through it and make it to the later rounds and the point deduction/non point deduction helps the judges fiddle the cards if it was close and oh at least one knockdown ruled a slip. It's bad but it's what you expect. Haney is the house fighter and you expect it. We've seen similar fights over the years with similar reffing and it's given the judges the opportunity to give the win to a guy who really lost. Without the three knockdowns they would have done it here too.

I can't speak for Harvey but in my eye the holding/clinching was pretty mutual. Ryan more subtle with it and tbh he fought the pace of an older fighter, managing his gas tank. And the turning of back is blatant and I believe illegal but it enabled Garcia to break out of it into the clear head locks he was rightfully warned for. He calls it a shoulder roll but James Toney is laughing out loud at that. It's strictly a defensive shell...and Haney was repeatedly told not to punch him early on. Ryan doesn't fight out of it, no up jab and no counter right. He was just shelling up to get the break and kill time. Would he have stopped Haney in 7th I have no idea. Like I said at least one of those was a KD to me and should have been called also. But again by not doing so didn't it actually afford Haney less time. I thought for sure Ryan would stop him easily going into 8th after all that damage but he couldn't. And again going into 11th and 12th, but he didn't. I still think this was actually a close fight absent the knockdowns judging per the individual round and not the collective. In rounds I think I had it 7-5 Haney to be honest. It's hard to argue a fight the guy won at the end of the day but in large part I put not getting the KO on Ryan himself. He just didn't prepare for a sustained onslaught and fought in gaps for a 25 year old. Drinking, smoking and raging in a part time "camp" does that to a guy. Cause and effect. I think all three judges were generous giving him the 12th too.

I actually agree with most of that. Garcia fought like a guy who hadn't trained much but I'm not sure how much of the smoking and drinking is genuine and how much is Mayorgaish. I think the big think for me was watching a top pound for pound guy who had never been knocked down get knocked around like that. So many knockdowns. Not something you see every day.

Garcia now has a memorable performance against a legit elite boxer. He didn't just fiddle a debatable points win, he had a bunch of highlight reel moments that are gold dust for him on social media. They give him endless clout now to make all kinds of bullshit zero risk fights and make tons of money.