Promoter Eddie Hearn feels that Ryan Garcia’s power was the key factor for his victory over Devin Haney on April 20th. Hearn says that Ryan’s ability to hurt Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) proved too much to overcome.
Although the New York Commission overturned Haney’s 12-round majority decision defeat, changing it to a no-contest, he still took a beating from Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs). The world saw what happened, and they still view Devin as having lost.
Ryan’s Punches Inflicted Significant Damage
Hearn feels that Haney was technically poor, making mistakes left and right on the night, starting with his leaky defense. But his decision to slug with Ryan was Haney’s undoing because he didn’t possess the punch resistance or the power to win that kind of a fight.
“He had the ability to hurt Devin with every shot he landed. The left hook was a powerful punch,” said Eddie Hearn to All The Smoke channel about Devin Haney’s loss to Ryan Garcia.”The first round was a major problem, and it took Devin a while to get over that. I’m thinking, ‘He’ll [Ryan] gas,’ but tactically, Devin was really poor. His defense was leaky. His feet weren’t really there.”
Ryan faded in each round but recovered quickly and continued to hurt Haney. When Ryan rested, Haney didn’t have enough power to take advantage of the lulls.
Haney’s Weight Struggles and Fatigue
“Then I started thinking, ‘How well did you [Haney] make the weight?’ You went through the training camp with doubts in your mind about whether this fight was even going to happen,” said Hearn. “He’s always tight at the weight. How he made 135 for so long, and then he got hurt [by Ryan] and knocked down.”
Haney looked drained during the weigh-in, which may have affected him on the night of the fight. We’d seen in Haney’s last fight that he didn’t belong at 140 lbs, with him rehydrating to 165 lbs for his fight against Regis Prograis last December.
That’s an absurd amount of weight, and it was surprising that Prograis didn’t take advantage of it. Perhaps he was too old at 35. However, Ryan was able to capitalize on a weakened Haney and hurt from the first round.
A Battered and Exhausted Haney
“I don’t think people actually give him credit for what he went through that night,” said Hearn about Haney. “He took a beating in that fight. His [Haney] face after the fight, his jaw was out here. He showed tremendous heart. So imagine going through that pain. One, the guy [Ryan] is massive on the night. You can feel it, and you know it, and then finding out the guy was popped for his pre-fight test and post-fight test.”
Haney went through a lot, getting knocked down three times, and the referee helped him a lot by taking a point off Ryan for hitting on the break in the seventh round after he’d been hurt.
“‘He was massive.’ Devin rehydrates heavy, but Ryan was huge that night,” said Hearn.
