Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya praised Ryan Garcia following his upset 12-round majority decision win over Devin Haney last Saturday night in New York.
After the fight, De La Hoya stated that Garcia (25-1, 20 KOs) had established himself as “legendary” and that he was now the “Face of Boxing.” It’s a bit early yet for Ryan to be viewed as either of those things, but he did pull off a big upset of Haney.
De La Hoya hopes that Ryan can become a superstar with longevity because he could be a massive star if he’s the real thing.
Unfortunately, Ryan has already outgrown the 140-lb division and will have to move up to 147. He’s talking about wanting to fight at 154, but there’s no way of knowing if he’s got the ability to exist at that weight.
The thing about Haney (31-1, 15 KOs) is we don’t know how good he is because he’d never beaten an elite-level fighter, aside from Vasily Lomachenko, and that was controversial.
What Ryan did was basically expose Haney, showing that he’s not as good as what many people thought. Ryan applied pressure on Haney in the second half and hurt him in the seventh, dropping him and knocking him down in rounds ten and eleven to cement his victory by the scores 115-109, 114-110, and 112-112.
De La Hoya Impressed by Garcia’s Willpower
“Ryan became legendary tonight,” said Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya to the media, reacting to Ryan Garcia’s upset win over Devin Haney last Saturday night at the Barclays Center in New York. “I think his will to win,” said De La Hoya on what impressed him about Ryan’s performance.
Ryan had to rally in the second half after being outboxed by Haney in the first half of the fight. Garcia had a good first round, hurting Haney with a left hook, but after that, he didn’t do much from rounds two through six.
In the seventh, Ryan turned things around, knocking Haney down, and having him holding on to keep from getting stopped.
“Haney is no joke. He was throwing bombs. I’ve never seen Haney throw bombs in my life,” said De La Hoya. “I thought he was going to come out and throw combinations and pity-pat. It works for him; he’s a beautiful boxer, but with the way that Ryan Garcia withstood the power and the pressure from Haney, the build-up. I’m proud of Ryan.
Haney was winding up on hooks and jabs, trying to get as much power as he could on his punches, but he couldn’t do much. Ryan wasn’t bothered by his power and was answering back with lightning-fast left hooks and right hands. When Ryan started throwing combinations, that’s when Haney fell apart from the seventh round one.
“He was getting discouraged, and that can wear you out as well, getting discouraged and getting you tired. That’s what was happening. Ryan is a big kid. Haney weighed in at 140 and was probably up at 160. We had two big guys in there. The difference was, Ryan Garcia is a puncher,” said De La Hoya.
