BOXING
Ryan Garcia misses weight ahead of Devin Haney bout: how much money he has to pay as compensation?
Missing the 140 pound limit will cost Ryan Garcia a pretty penny, and it is more than just his wager with Devin Haney to take into consideration.
With the news that Ryan Garcia has missed the weight ahead of his bout with Devin Haney, the news is filled with stories of their wager. For those who haven’t heard of it, Haney took a few jabs at Garcia for looking “fat.” In a back-and-forth spat at Thursday’s press conference, Garcia agreed a wager that if he came in overweight, he would pay Haney $500,000 for each pound that he missed by.
Fast forward to Friday and Ryan Garcia came in 3.2 pounds over the 140 pound limit. He and his promoter Golden Boy insisted that he would honor the handshake deal from yesterday and pay Haney $1.5 million, a fact that was later confirmed by Haney himself via Twitter.
But that is just the beginning of it.
In the scramble to sign a catchweight deal so that the fight could continue, Garcia agreed to pay Haney at least $600,000 of his potential purse money, plus a percentage of PPV. This could end up being another million or so for Garcia.
And by missing weight, the WBC has taken the Super Lightweight belt off the table, meaning that Garcia has given up any chance to become the champion. It is difficult to put a price tag on belts, but it is without doubt that the champion can command a higher payout than a challenger. Not to mention the many fighters that are lining up to make a bout with the champ. If you include future potential title fights, including a rematch with Haney, which would have been almost automatic in the case of a Garcia win, then those three pounds could cost Garcia upward of $10 million in the long run.