The Devin Haney vs. Ryan Garcia fight did not go the way most people expected it to. KingRy completely shattered everyone’s expectations after beating his opponent. This was quite a sight to behold since Haney has remained undefeated and was once an undisputed champion. While the fight ended with Garcia winning via majority decision, he believes that his knockout victory was stolen from him.
From the get-go, KingRy came out swimming and caught Haney with a solid punch. The Dream took quite some time to recover and later maintained his distance. Garcia continued to look for loopholes to exploit in Haney’s defense and later managed to knock him down three times. During this, Haney was holding on to his life, and Garcia believed the referee saved him.
Dock took a point away when I cracked him. But he held me. I should have knocked him out in that seventh round. They stole that from me.Ryan Garcia via post-fight press conference
Garcia complained about how the referee’s actions were strange and believed that he should have stopped the fight. Furthermore, KingRy even looked towards Bill Haney because they weren’t stopping the fight. After he sensed an opportunity, Garcia tried to end the fight but ended up getting a point deducted for punching when the ref tried to separate the fighter.
Woke up sad thinking people should’ve got that Ko bet
Ref that 7th round should’ve been stopped
Point deduction wasn’t warranted, never received a warning
Crazy man 🤷♂️
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) April 21, 2024The referee was in hot water after his suspicious officiating. Many, including Garcia, believed the referee tried to protect Haney more than once. Especially, during the 7th round the referee intervened several times and allowed Haney to clinch for way longer and give him more time to recover.
Stephen A. Smith speaks about the referee
Many people in the fight sport, like Stephen A. Smith, were unhappy with the referee’s call for the game between Haney and Garcia. This is because Garcia was penalized a point for striking on the break in the seventh round of the fight.
However, Devin Haney did not receive the same punishment, as he kept clinching as the fight progressed. The point deduction almost cost Garcia because one of the judge’s scorecards showed a draw despite the three knockdowns. Smith also reacted to this and called the referee terrible.
This referee is absolutely terrible. Ryan Garcia drops Haney. He’s hurt as hell, holding into Garcia for dear life, forcing Garcia to punch in the clinch. The ref pauses action to deduct point — no warning. Utter bullshit. Garcia drops Haney again twice — yet ref calls both a…
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) April 21, 2024He reflected on how Garcia dropped Haney, and The Dream was clinching him, which caused Garcia to punch amidst the clinch. Hence, Smith does believe that the referee should not have deducted a point because of this. He also brought up how the referee called the two knockdown slips and did not give any warning before the point deduction.
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