Ryan Garcia, the rebirth after excesses, alcohol and porn star stories: Haney knocked out three times and beaten on points

Ryan Garcia, rebirth after excesses. The most media-focused boxer on the planet – for example, ten and a half million follow him on Instagram – is also a great boxer. He proved it by beating Devin Haney on points in the ring at the Barclays Center in New York after knocking him out three times. However, he will not become super lightweight world champion for the WBC. The reason, and here we get into the excesses, in the world of boxing is a serious one: he didn’t fall within the weight limits, or even by a few grams. Fifteen hundred over the limit of 63.5 in the category, an enormity that git cost them a penalty of one and a half million dollars entered his opponent’s coffers. A lot for every pound, ‘Merchant of Venice’ stuff.

The success, however, weight or no weight, relaunched him in an impressive way on a boxing level. For the rest, Garcia certainly doesn’t need fame. With all those followers, the mention of a sneeze is enough for him to raise a fuss. The problem is that he does much more than sneeze. Handsome, rich, famous, but with a star tending towards obscuring. No longer America’s boyfriend nor husband of the beautiful Andrea Cèlina, a breakup announced, with disconcerting timing, a few hours after the birth of their firstborn. And other events had not improved things. Admitting to smoking weed and drinking alcohol. The announcement of the relationship with the porn star Savannah Bondwhich we could care about but which has unleashed the keyboard moralists.

Devin Haney is a good boxer: he had won all 31 fights so far, unifying the lightweight crowns under his dominion. But his hyper-technical and very, very defensive boxing, which doesn’t endear him to the American public, didn’t work this time. Garcia set the record straight from the first round, hitting him with a left hook and opening cracks in his confidence. The turning point of the match, however, came from the seventh round onwards. Haney suffered the first knockdown, and Garcia’s left hook from then on was a sentence. The same blow in the tenth and eleventh rounds sent Haney down again, in a devastating manner in the second instance. We went to read the cards: one judge gave it a draw, the other two had no doubts and awarded the victory to King Ryan by 4 and 6 points. “But did you really think I was crazy?”. He said jokingly after the match. “But now I need a beer…”