Ryan Garcia (25-1, 20 KOs) pulled off a massive upset on Saturday night, defeating WBC light welterweight champion Devin Haney (31-1, 15 KOs) by a 12-round majority decision at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Garcia knocked Haney down three times in the fight, once in the seventh, tenth, and eleventh rounds. The scores were as follows:
112 -112
114 – 110
115 – 109
Undercard results
Undefeated light welterweight contender Arnold Barboza Jr. (30-0, 11 KOs) won a highly questionable ten-round split decision against Sean McComb (18-2, 5 KOs).
The tall 6’0″ southpaw McComb outboxed Barboza the entire fight, appearing to win 9-1 in a one-sided fight. Two of the judges scored it for the A-side fighter Barboza Jr, who is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.
The scores were 98-92 for McComb, 96-94, and 97-93 for Barboza. I scored it for McComb 99-91. After the results were announced, the fans loudly booed, showing the judges that they felt that McComb should have won.
A rematch would make sense, but it might not make a difference unless it were in the UK. Regardless of the controversial scoring, Barboza was exposed in this fight.
Super middleweight contender Bektemir Melikuziev (14-1, 10 KOs) defeated little-known Pierre Dibombe (22-1-1, 12 KOs) by an eight-round technical decision.
The Golden Boy-promoted 28-year-old Melikuziev knocked Dicombe down in the fifth in what looked particularly as a result of the fighter’s terrible balance. The contest was halted in the eighth round due to cuts that both fighters had suffered. The scores were 79-73, 79-73 and 78-74.
The win was Melikuziev’s seventh consecutive since being knocked out in the second round by Gabriel Rosado in 2022.
David Jimenez (16-1, 11 KOs) was too much for the popular previously unbeaten John “Scrappy” Ramirez (13-1, 9 KOs), defeating him by a one-sided twelve-round unanimous decision to win the WBA interim super flyweight title.
The judges’ scores were 117-111, 117-111, and 116-112. Jimenez was too busy for Scrappy and wasn’t bothered by his power.
In the first fight of the main card, unbeaten junior middleweight contender Charles Conwell (19-0, 14 KOs) wiped out the always dependable Nathaniel Gallimore (22-8-1, 17 KOs) by a sixth-round knockout in a showcase fight.
Conwell unloaded with nonstop power shots in the sixth, forcing the referee to step in and stop the slaughter. The time of the stoppage was at :52 of round six.
Super middleweight contender Sergiy Derevyanchenko (15-5, 10 KOs) dominated veteran Vaughn Alexander (18-11-1, 11 KOs), winning a lopsided ten-round unanimous. The scores were 100-89, 100-89 and 100-89.
Returning from a ten-month layoff, Derevyanchenko, 38, showed excellent footwork and combination punching throughout the contest, machine-gunning the 38-year-old Alexander with combos. In the ninth round, Derevyanchenko landed a beautiful left to the body of Alexander that put him down on the canvas.
Derevyanchenko was prevented from finishing off the badly hurt Alexander because the referee repeatedly told him to go back to his neutral corner when he was standing at the center of the ring, ready to pound on the fighter.
Earlier in the fight, Derevyanchenko was cut on the nose from a close of heads. In the fifth, Derevyanchenko began to throw more combinations, pounding Alexander, who was walking into the shots.
Derevyanchenko began tiring in the seventh, and was taking big shots occasionally from Alexander.
With the talent that Derevyanchenko displayed, he should have been on the main portion of tonight’s card, as he hs more skills than any of the fighters, including Devin Haney.
The loss for Alexander was his fourth in a row.
