Ryan Garcia vs Devin Haney Weigh-In was Pure Chaos

Highlights

Garcia and Haney meet on Saturday night in New York, but the challenger can no longer win the WBC world title.
‘King Ryan’ missed weight by 3.2 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in, costing himself $1.5m in the process.
Garcia has since tried to claim his failure on the scales was deliberate.

In what has been a shocking 24 hours for Ryan Garcia, he weighed in 3.2lbs heavy for his clash with the WBC super-lightweight world champion Devin Haney on Saturday. The social media star turned up to the official weigh-in hugely overweight, which has led to the belt no longer being on the line in New York.

As if that wasn’t enough, due to a pre-fight bet made in Thursday’s pre-fight press conference, Garcia is now set to hand Haney $1.5 million – $500,000 for every pound he was over the 140lbs limit. Normally, when fighters weigh in heavy, the commission where the bout is taking place allows extra time for the fighter to cut weight. However, on this occasion, regulators did not allow the Californian that option as there was no chance of him shedding the necessary pounds.

Ryan Garcia Appears to Down a Beer on Stage After Missing Weight for Devin Haney Fight

His failure cost the fighter $1.5m

Due to ‘King Ryan’ being so badly overweight, it was up to both promoters yesterday to come to an agreement for the fight to go on. As Garcia entered the venue for the ceremonial weigh-in, he further continued to disgrace himself by downing what seemed to be a bottle of beer on the scales – to jeers from fans in attendance.

Having lost $1.5m on the day, it was surprising to see Garcia take to social media to poke fun at the situation. One of his tweets read: “I feel great and I got a 3 pound advantage. Let’s go hahahahaa. Winners do what they have to do I’m still sharp.”

Another post suggested that coming in overweight may have been part of his game plan for the fight all along – although it’s puzzling that he agreed to the weight bet if he already knew that he was going to fail on the scales.

“Why would I force my self to make weight so I can be weak. Nah I’m here to win. That’s It.”

In his final post mocking the situation, Garcia wrote: “My balls got too heavy. And back gained too much muscle from carrying the promo[tional activities for the fight]. And my fingers got stronger from all the tweets, damn.”

Haney, who is currently 31-0, was believed to have been struggling to make weight throughout the week. However, he weighed in bang on 140lbs. The two-weight world champion is now the heavy favourite to win the fight and will be looking to add Garcia to his ever-impressive list of victories.

Devin-Haney-and-Ryan-Garcia-Agree-Huge-$500,000-Pre-Fight-Bet

The Las Vegas resident wasn’t happy with Garcia when the pair met for their final face-off at the weigh-in, with the two rivals having to be separated by promoter Oscar De La Hoya and middleweight legend Bernard Hopkins. Chaos soon unfolded on the stage as various brawls broke out.

Haney said of Garcia after the weigh-in, per Sportskeeda: “He’s very unprofessional. I told him yesterday (Thursday) his antics would betray him and this is just the start.” This isn’t the first time that Garcia has struggled to make weight either. In his last fight with Oscar Duarte, the 25-year-old was meant to compete at 140lbs. Despite that, he came in at the 143lbs mark and the fight was then scheduled for that weight on the night as no belts were on the line. Garcia has already had to move up in weight multiple times in his young career and may be forced to do so again after this latest drama.