Ryan Garcia (25-1, 20 KOs) put in an outstanding performance, beating previously unbeaten WBC light welterweight champion Devin Haney (31-1, 15 KOs) by a 12-round majority decision to dethrone the champ in a huge upset on Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Haney was hit the deck three times in the contest from huge shots from Ryan, going down once in rounds seven, ten, and eleven. Ryan was penalized a point for hitting on the break in the seventh round after he’d hurt Haney.
The scores were 112-112, 114-110 and 115-109.
Undercard results for tonight’s fights:
In a highly controversial result, light welterweight contender Arnold Barboza Jr. (30-0, 11 KOs) defeated Sean McComb (18-2, 5 KOs) by a 10-round split decision. McComb outboxed Barboza the entire fight jabbing and making him miss and looking very talented. This is one of the most controversial results in a long time.
The Golden Boy-promoted Barboza Jr. looked totally out of his element the entire fight, unable to land much of anything and getting picked apart by the Irish fighter. The scores were 98-92 for McComb, 96-94, and 97-93 for Barboza. The fans were not happy with the fight’s results, booing loudly.
You have to wonder if Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya has buyer’s remorse after recently signing Barboza Jr. to their stable.
Super middleweight contender Bektemir Melikuziev (14-1, 10 KOs) out-slugged and outworked Pierre Dibombe (22-1-1, 12 KOs) to win an eight-round technical decision. Both fighters suffered cuts, causing the fight to be stopped at the start of the eighth round. The judges’ scores were 79-73, 79-73, and 78-74. Dicombe was knocked down in the fifth.
David Jimenez (16-1, 11 KOs) battered John “Scrappy” Ramirez (13-1, 9 KOs) in a surprisingly one-sided fashion, winning a wide 12-round unanimous decision to capture the WBA interim flyweight title. The scores were 117-111, 117-111, and 116-112.
Unbeaten junior middleweight contender Charles Conwell (19-0, 14 KOs) made easy work of Nathaniel Gallimore (22-8-1, 17 KOs), stopping him in the sixth round of a non-competitive fight.
Conwell hit the struggling Gallimore at will the entire fight, forcing the referee to finally step in and top the mismatch at 0:52 of round six. This fight would have been better off in the prelims.
It was not in the leat entertaining or competitive. Conwell recently signed with Golden Boy, and they gave a soft opponent for his first fight with them.
Super middleweight contender Sergiy Derevyanchenko (15-5, 10 KOs) put on a combination punching clinic tonight, beating Vaughn Alexander (18-11-1, 11 KOs) by a ten-round unanimous decision in the preliminary card.
In the ninth, Derevyanchenko knocked Alexander down with a left to the body and had him close to being stopped. Alexander barely made it up at the count of nine.
The referee then delayed the restart of action, twice ordering Derevyanchenko to go to the neutral corner. This long delay saved Alexander from being stopped.
The judges’ scores were 100-89, 100-89, and 100-89.
